INXS - The Album thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Nov 19, 2020.

  1. Bluepicasso

    Bluepicasso Android Confused

    Location:
    Arlington, Va
    Like how they went in reverse with the track listing.
     
  2. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Full Moon, Dirty Hearts

    [​IMG]
    Studio album by
    INXS
    Released
    2 November 1993
    Recorded November 1992 – October 1993
    Studio Capri Studio, Capri
    Genre Alternative rock
    Length 39:57
    Label Atlantic Records US
    Mercury Records EU
    East West Records
    Producer Mark Opitz, INXS

    Full Moon, Dirty Hearts is the ninth studio album released by Australian band INXS in 1993, through Warner Music Australia.[1] It was followed by the Dirty Honeymoon world tour of 1993–1994.

    "Please" featured vocals by Ray Charles; the title track featured vocals by the Pretenders lead singer, Chrissie Hynde, however the latter was not released as a single, while the former was.

    The band's manager, Chris Murphy, arranged to shoot videos for every song on the album. Twelve videos were shot on a small budget by different up and coming Australian directors.[2]

    The Japanese edition of the album included a cover of Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild", which was specially recorded for the April 1993 launch of Virgin Radio in the UK.[3]

    As INXS were finishing their previous studio album Welcome to Wherever You Are, they decided not to tour in support for the album; instead the group promised to go straight into the studio to record a follow-up album, then later tour for both albums.[4]

    Following the release of Welcome to Wherever You Are, the band spent the next few months promoting the album across various countries in Europe, including the UK, France and Sweden.[5] While promoting the album in Europe, vocalist Michael Hutchence visited then girlfriend Helena Christensen in her home city of Copenhagen in Denmark. The couple were returning home from a nightclub one night when Hutchence got into a scuffle with a taxi driver.[6] The incident started when a drunken Hutchence refused to move off the road to allow the taxi to pass. The taxi driver got out of his vehicle and punched Hutchence causing him to fall onto the pavement.[6] The singer sustained a fractured skull due to the fall and as a result suffered a loss of his sense of smell and taste.[7] The singer spent two weeks recovering in a Copenhagen hospital.[7] In the unofficial biography Michael Hutchence: A Tragic Rock & Roll Story, Australian author Vince Lovegrove wrote, "It had a very strange effect on Michael. The alleged injury also caused the singer to act erratically, abusively and to suffer insomnia".[8] Although temporary, these conditions would have an effect during the production of Full Moon, Dirty Hearts.

    INXS
    Additional musicians
    Additional personnel
    • Mark Opitz – producer
    • INXS – producer
    • Bob Clearmountain – mixing
    • Niven Garland – engineer
    • Kevin Metcalfe – mastering engineer
    • Melissa Van Twest, John Mansey, Max Carola, Bruce Keen, Alex Firla, Randy Wine Pete Lewis, Benedict Fenner – assistant engineers
    • Chris Kimsey – additional recording
    • Enrique Badulescu – front cover photography
    • Chris Murphy – management
    • Katerina Jebb, Garry Beers and Leslie Farriss – inside photography
    • Michael Nash – design
    • INXS – front cover design
    1. "Days of Rust" 3:09
    2. "The Gift" Jon Farriss, Hutchence 4:04
    3. "Make Your Peace" 2:41
    4. "Time" 2:52
    5. "I'm Only Looking" 3:31
    6. "Please (You Got That ...)" (featuring Ray Charles) 3:02
    7. "Full Moon, Dirty Hearts" (featuring Chrissie Hynde) 3:29
    8. "Freedom Deep" 3:59
    9. "Kill the Pain" 2:57
    10. "Cut Your Roses Down" 3:28
    11. "The Messenger" 3:28
    12. "Viking Juice" 3:12
    Bonus track on Japanese edition
    13. "Born to Be Wild" Mars Bonfire 3:48


    Weekly charts
    Chart (1993-1994) Peak
    position

    Australian Albums (ARIA)[27] 4
    Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[30] 18
    Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[31] 70
    German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[32] 27
    New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[33] 36
    Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[34] 14
    Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[35] 8
    Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[36] 9
    UK Albums (OCC)[26] 3
    US Billboard 200[25] 53


    Sales and certifications
    Region Certification Certified units/sales
    Australia (ARIA)[29]
    Gold 35,000^
    United Kingdom (BPI)[28] Gold 100,000^
    United States (RIAA) — 152,000[37]
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    This is an interesting one, It is the first Inxs album since their slow rise to prominence in the US market that didn't manage to reach a certification.

    I remember the album coming out, because to be honest, my friends and I pretty much made fun of the name of this one, and we kind of thought the guys had lost their minds by this stage. Kick had been a catering to the US market kind of album. X had been its ugly sister. At the time Welcome didn't really get out attention enough to even rate a mention..... and when Full Moon came out, we just thought that the title was comical and the band had just lost their minds.
    It seemed at this point that more attention was being paid to Michael's girlfriends, than any kind of music that the band was bringing out, and for all intents and purposes, in out minds the band had flamed out.

    Obviously in hindsight looking through the albums with you guys, that seems somewhat exaggerated. Also I can't say that our opinion was shared by the whole of Australia or anything silly like that .... I'm just trying to give a context, or where we were.

    Very interestingly I did really like the song the Gift ... I don't remember where I heard it, but I do remember it getting my attention to some degree. I saw a really cheap EP on cd in a shop one day, and I bought it. It had the gift and a few Inxs tracks from through the years on it, and it got a few listens. I was never one to buy singles, but around this time there were a few mini albums that came out at good prices, with five or more songs and I bought a couple.... I seem to remember XTC The Disappointed also coming out this way too.

    Anyway, I am still getting into this album at this stage, and I must say it sounds pretty decent.

    I am looking forward to exploring a little deeper with you all here, and seeing where we end up.

    So please share your thoughts regarding this album, and any circumstances or thoughts on the social and commercial environment that you reckon can help us piece together where Inxs were at this stage of their career.

    Did you like this at the time?
    What do you think now?

    Give give us the full wrap up, and we'll hit the first track tomorrow.

    Cheers
    Mark
     
  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  5. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  6. Bluepicasso

    Bluepicasso Android Confused

    Location:
    Arlington, Va
    Full Moon and Dirty Hearts. Remember when this came out, hardly any press on it from what I remember (possibly was listening to other bands and just didn't realize). The cover didn't help the album either. Michael doesn't look well in the photographs to me, of course due to his accident/fight. Don't like the song with Ray Charles and Viking Juice at all. The majority of these songs blur together for me. It seems rushed and just pasted together. Kill The Pain and Freedom Deep are some of my favorite songs from them, so there are positives. The album really got caught up on the change of musical theatre. It is not a bad album at all.
     
  7. twicks

    twicks Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit
    This is about the best thing you can say about FMDH. It's an odd one: I enjoy almost every song taken on its own merits and it definitely propels you through its running time, it just never coheres into a proper album. I'd also say it got a bum rap at the time and is much better than its reputation (one star on AllMusic is a joke).

    It's also a tough one to armchair quarterback. What should they have done differently? I have absolutely no idea.
     
  8. Bluepicasso

    Bluepicasso Android Confused

    Location:
    Arlington, Va
    They were fighting the "in fashion" music. The only band who has survived possibly is the band in your profile pic.
     
  9. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    Full Moon, Dirty Hearts (alternate tracklisting)

    The album-length video compilation that was made for the album has a different tracklisting. I wonder if this is what producer Mark Opitz was referring to? @Interpolantics



    Inxs - Full Moon, Dirty Hearts
    (video tracklisting)
    1. Freedom Deep
    2. The Gift
    3. I’m Only Looking
    4. Full Moon, Dirty Hearts
    5. The Messenger
    6. Time
    7. Please (You Got That)
    8. Cut Your Roses Down
    9. Make Your Peace
    10. Days Of Rust
    11. Viking Juice
    12. Kill The Pain
     
  10. Interpolantics

    Interpolantics Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    I picked up a used copy of FMDH for next to nothing in 1998

    I think it's a really solid set of tracks but it suffers from a terrible running order.

    Freedom Deep and Kill The Pain should never have been beside each other on the track listing IMO.

    The band look fairly miserable on the cover and from what we know now it is hardly surprising.

    They were chasing trends for the first time in their career and were all too aware they were fading out of fashion.

    I got the impression around this time that Hutchence almost resented the band for not being as "cool" as him.

    On the whole though FMDH is one of three INXS albums that I absolutely love and never tire of.
     
  11. Interpolantics

    Interpolantics Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    Brilliant! I'm almost certain that is it as Opitz mentioned it was supposed to open with Freedom Deep. I'm looking forward to giving it another spin now in that order.
     
  12. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    FM, DH (the album)

    I had a very very busy 1993-94 and free time for listening and searching for new music mostly disappeared, but I caught a single airing of the video for The Gift on MTV and it hit me like a bolt of lightning. WHAT had I just seen? It really stuck with me. I didn’t rush out and buy the album, but I saw it used later on and picked it up. This album is amazing - but only partly. The Gift, Freedom Deep, Cut Your Roses Down, the title track and I’m Only Looking are extraordinary - some of the most unique things they ever recorded. And then it’s got some solid tracks such as Please with Ray Charles, and Time, not to mention Kill The Pain, a track so final that it has to be last, but yet they put it 3rd to last in the tracklisting and then followed it up with the bouncy Cut Your Roses Down? Baffling. And then here comes a host of tracks that might fit together with the rest, like puzzle pieces, if only the ideal tracklisting could be discovered. Days Of Rust, The Messenger, Make Your Peace and Viking Juice *might* work on some version of this album, or maybe we just need to toss Viking Juice and one of the others overboard and replace them with the “spirit animal” of these proceedings: their cover of Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild”. It’s included in the Japanese release of the album as a bonus track, and it seems to have been recorded first during the album sessions for Virgin Radio, so maybe it set the tone for the rest of the recordings and belongs with them.

    This is a confusing album. Is it their “grunge” record? Flannel shirts on the cover, and a goofy tracklist that puts the grungier songs first makes me think the record label did some tinkering here in an attempt to keep up with the trends. But this is INXS - they just do whatever it is they do, and this album certainly has plenty of “non-grunge” songs on it. Regardless of labels, this really truly is a good album, and it deserves to be heard. If you are a fan of INXS but have never listened to this one closely, then you’ve missed out on some top shelf songs here.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2021
  13. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    As released on CD however, the title track Full Moon Dirty Hearts flows seemlessly into Freedom Deep - a beautiful transition that is not on the video album. Also, Make Your Peace links into Time on the CD and this is missing on the video album as well. So I have to wonder if the video album actually represents Mark Opitz’ idea for the tracklisting or if it is a 3rd version?
     
  14. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    One thing that is clear to me is that the record label cut bait on FM, DH and just stopped promoting it. My “evidence” is that remixes for Cut Your Roses Down and I’m Only Looking were released on the subsequent Strangest Party single and Greatest Hits album bonus disc a year later in 1994. Why else would there be remixes of these potential single tracks laying around in 1994 unreleased? They surely didn’t commission any new remixes for songs that had never been promoted on an album that bombed. I never knew that Time and Freedom Deep had single releases outside the US until this year, and apparently the Freedom Deep single has some of these mixes but not all of them. The usual big promo scheme for INXS, with 4-5 singles released worldwide seems to have been cut short in the album’s case.
     
  15. David Jakubowski

    David Jakubowski Forum Resident

    So, Full Moon, Dirty Hearts is a weird one for me (as it appears to be for many others here). I’m fairly certain I had already purchased the CD single for “The Gift” when it came out – which I liked a lot, though didn’t love – so I was pretty pumped for the full album. Then came the “letdown” despite really loving several of the songs… Somehow, this album is sort of the polar opposite of Welcome to Wherever You Are: the sum never really equals the parts

    The band was clearly between a rock and a hard place here. If they kept pushing their musical boundaries, they would move farther outside the mainstream. If they pushed a harder edge, they were pandering and/or retreading old ground. That terrible album cover really seemed to broadcast the “confusion.” This band always seemed to have it’s own style and now they’re trying to present themselves as a Seattle garage band?

    Ultimately, I think they honestly tried to create a worthy successor to Welcome, but just like trying to recreate an amazing spontaneous party, planning it out the next time means it never is as good as the original.

    All that said, I don’t want to sound too down on the album. I think it’s actually still mostly darn good. I think many of their other albums are better, but they set such a high bar with those, there’s no shame in this album coming in behind them. I truly love many of the songs here, and I’m not as down on the tracklist as some seem to be (although I’m definitely open to alternate ideas to see if it does indeed help!).

    Full Moon, Dirty Hearts is definitely flawed, but it is still a gem. Even if it doesn’t shine as bright as the previous jewels from this band.
     
  16. Al Gator

    Al Gator You can call me Al

    Full Moon, Dirty Hearts is an inconsistent album. At times it feels generic, but there are some real gems hiding here. The songs are all quite short, but there’s nothing here that needs to be epic. On my system, the sound quality is a step down from the last few albums; I think the loudness wars may be starting to take a toll.
     
  17. David Jakubowski

    David Jakubowski Forum Resident

    Thanks for posting this video. Forst time I’ve seen the entire thing, which is pretty interesting. Also, pleasantly surprised how well that tracklist works. In fact, I really like it. A lot.

    I’m not totally sold on “Kill the Pain” as the closer, however. To me, that song always felt like it should be in the middle, like a vinyl Side 1 closer. This tracklist actually makes me think the title track would have been a great closer, especially with the “Freedom Deep” instrumental reprise from the video (which would have maintained the same crossfade from the CD).
     
  18. twicks

    twicks Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit
    Agree with this."Days of Rust" in particular has a muddy mix; unfortunate for an opening track.

    That said, I have zero problems with the sequencing. It moves along briskly and seems logical enough.
     
  19. Melllvar

    Melllvar No Matter Where You Go, There You Are!

    Location:
    Anchorage, Alaska
    Full Moon, Dirty Hearts (Album):

    This album seemingly came out of nowhere, at least to my eyes. I do recall seeing on the new release rack in late November '93, but for the life of me, I did not hear a single track from it on the radio. Which was weird, considering the active rock station that I listened to had classic and recent INXS songs on its playlist. Lack of promotion aside, I actually didn't buy the album when it came out. This was mostly due to my changing tastes and discovery around this time.

    I did eventually buy this album the following year and at that point it was hitting the cutout bin at my local record store. As mentioned, it's a bit disheartening to see the band's last few albums get tossed that like; It was pretty clear that the band was heading on the way out in terms of relevance. I found this album quite enjoyable when I first listened to it. There were some great songs on it that I really liked such as 'Days of Rust', 'Time', 'The Gift', 'I'm Only Looking' and 'Freedom Deep'.

    As for the cover, it was laughable to see some of the band decked out with the 'Seattle Scene'. Sure, there's some nod to grunge on the album, but I feel it was the band exhibiting a more rawer sound to fit the times. As for the legacy, It was a heavily played album during 94-96, but afterwards it just sat on my shelf. I can't honestly say when the last time I've listened to the album all the way through. Of course, thanks to this thread, I pulled it out and give a few listens. It still holds up and it's back in my listening rotation.
     
  20. Interpolantics

    Interpolantics Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    It's worth noting how highly regarded the group were at this point.

    Brian Eno, Chrissie Hynde and Ray Charles is an impressive roll call.
     
  21. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    The Brian Eno credit always sneaks past me. Any story about his involvement here?

    There’s a brief period in the 90’s when Eno would hire himself out to drop in for a day or two for a mix session or to collaborate on a song, but not for a long marathon. For example, he’s credited on Slowdive’s Souvlaki for one song, and I think 3/4 band members never even met him, as he just dropped in for a Saturday whilst everyone else was out.
     
  22. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    re: the video tracklisting
    I like your idea there. I had to go back and rewatch the video to see what you meant about the closing track, but I understand now: they essentially had an instrumental of Freedom Deep playing while the final credits rolled.

    So let’s say that “Kill The Pain” is a Side One closing track. What follows that to open Side Two of an LP? And can we live with it being in the middle of a CD’s running order?
     
  23. David Jakubowski

    David Jakubowski Forum Resident

    I don’t usually get too hung up on this kind of stuff, but I’m definitely gonna play around with this over the weekend! :thumbsup:
     
  24. Moggio_4K_Ultra_HD

    Moggio_4K_Ultra_HD Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver, BC
    The GOOTH tour promo EP was a cool sampler that mostly included a deep album cut track listing that was great for newer fans that were only familiar with the hits.

    For two weeks leading up to the release of Full Moon, Dirty Hearts, in between rehearsing for the Dirty Honeymoon tour somewhere in the US, Michael & Tim went on a short interview/promo tour and stopped by MuchMusic's (Canadian music video channel) HQ in Toronto, for an all day special, entitled, INXS: In Excess (***a few clips from that day). I remember watching the ENTIRE day's worth of programming and taping it. They answered questions from Erica Ehm (VJ), while they played pool at a local bar, then gave tix away to the upcoming Toronto show on the street, and then answered more questions from fans back in the studio, etc. And at the end of the broadcast, the world premiere of the FM, DH video album was broadcast. And I clearly remember being in awe of not only how completely different and unique most of the songs were compared to WTWYA, but how amazing the music videos were too. A few days later, the album was released, and I bought the CD version and couldn't stop playing it for weeks. INXS were already my favourite band at this point. But even though I feel FM,DH is their 2nd best album, the album somehow solidified my love for their music more than WTWYA did in some strange way.

    Partly because of Michael's brain injury, FM, DH was by far the most difficult album for INXS to make. And they had many heated arguments regarding the stylistic direction, etc. But in the end, they compromised and made one of the best albums of their career. In fact, in some ways, it's more stylistically diverse than WTWYA is. And I can't wait to dive deep into the album's discussion tomorrow...

    *** ...


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5yfhChbTh4

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DywDbYSd_ks

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbzMFiwSl1I

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc9atWGkvYk
     
  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I reckon you'll know.

    How close together were the ep and the album released?
    I know the EP was like a tour promo... but it seems like it may have been a better promo, in some ways, possibly, to have released the album with a bonus promo ep, whether a tour edition or whatever other marketing guff they may have used...
    The only reason I'm thinking about this, is one interfering with the others sales.... ?? Maybe, idk, marketing isn't my strong suite lol
     

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