The Swing – INXS

If ever you needed a reminder of just how good INXS were, one listen to The Swing is all you need. It may not have had as big an impact overseas as its successors Listen Like Thieves or the multi-million selling Kick, but The Swing was the pivotal album where INXS truly defined their sound. The Swing was the first INXS album where all the elements of their musical influences distilled into a cohesive sound combined with a stellar collection of well-crafted songs – there simply isn’t a dud track on the record. By the time The Swing arrived INXS had become a well-oiled machine built on their previous 3 albums and 7 years of relentless touring, including their first foray into the US off the back of Shabooh Shoobah.

The Swing had its origins in late 1983 with INXS undertaking their first overseas recording session with Chic’s Nile Rogers at the helm in New York. The band’s timing couldn’t have been better, with Rogers only having just completed Bowie’s Let’s Dance sessions in the same studio. The track was Original Sin, an inter racial love scenario that held an optimistic outlook for a “brand new day”. Its unusual staccato rhythm and Japanese styled melodic keyboard riff were in sync with the song’s theme. The song literally honks courtesy of Kirk Pengilly’s fabulous sax with guest backing vocals on the chorus from Darryl Hall to sweeten the deal. The video was shot in Japan with the band riding motorcycles as a carnival is erected behind them. It’s an incredible song – nothing like anything INXS had recorded before lyrically or musically and it still sounds fantastic today.

The remainder of the album was produced by Englishman Nick Launay, today one of the world’s most in demand producers, but at that time was new to the game as a virtual unknown, although a number of Australian bands had utilised his services early on with Launay recently completing work on Midnight Oil’s breakthrough album 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 and The Models’ Pleasure Of Your Company before working with INXS.

I Send A Message was the second single from The Swing and the first taste of Launay’s production work with the band, with the song being released a month before the album. It was a very different approach from the slickness of Nile Rogers’ work on Original Sin, yet it’s jaunty, angular funk complimented the sound of the album’s first single. With Pengilly’s sax bursts punching through and Beers’ thumping bass line building momentum, Hutchence chimes in with a vocal that builds into the song to create the dramatic opening. The video  carried on from the Japanese theme established with Original Sin, this time recoded in an ancient Buddhist temple in Tokyo.

The pulsating percussive rhythms of Burn For You continued on from the success of the album’s first two singles with all of them becoming top 3 hits in Australia, though that success wasn’t replicated to the same extent elsewhere. Jenny Morris contributed to the soaring backing vocals on Burn For You adding to the song’s appeal.

The Swing was the album where Jon Farriss (drums) and Garry Gary Beers (bass) found the groove that would become the platform on the funk that would follow. Listen to a track like Love Is (What I Say) and it’s virtually impossible not to want to dance to it. With the song’s soaring melodic hook and Michael Hutchence’s paradoxical lyric “I don’t think we know each other enough to lie” it’s got to be the best INXS song never released as a single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzhNiWEwm8o

The Swing is also the album where Tim Farriss developed his guitar playing to fuse with the funky foundation laid down by his youngest brother and Beers. Melting In The Sun, Dancing on the Jetty and Face The Change all provide irresistible grooves with Tim’s chopped guitar chords slotting into the spaces left by Garry and Jon.

The Swing is also the album where Kirk Pengilly’s sax saw the spotlight on more songs than on any other INXS  LP with his horn featuring on almost half the record’s songs – Face The Change, Original Sin, I Send A Message and the fabulous Johnson’s Aeroplane. Even though Kirk Pengilly maintains the guitar is his first instrument his sax sounded so good and was such a key element to the identity of INXS at that time it’s a crime it wasn’t used more often throughout the band’s recording career.

Finally The Swing is the album where the band’s principal song writing partnership of Andrew Farriss (music) and Michael Hutchence (lyrics) found a new level of confidence. Hutchence’s lyrics had a knowing worldliness that never resorted to cynicism. Even when Michael would “watch the world argue with itself”, he immediately followed it with the optimistic plea “who’s gonna teach me peace and happiness?” Musically Andrew Farriss had now developed an approach of rhythmic grooves combined with the sensibility of melodic hooks that made you both want to sing and dance. The band capitalised on this with Dekadance, a cassette only release that followed the album featuring half a dozen remixes from The Swing. It was the age of the 12 inch and INXS were ready for the dancefloor.

Even though INXS were a band of very talented players and songwriters Michael Hutchence had such an incredible stage presence he was unquestionably the public face of the band. In the context of that era to the average Australian Michael Hutchence came across as a worldly figure, having grown up in Hong Kong, California and Sydney. His lythe on stage persona would slink and strut across the stage oozing sex like a cross between Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger. Hutchence was, and remains, Australia’s one and only true rock star. In career terms Michael Hutchence’s timing couldn’t have been better, emerging at a time when Australian musicians were only just beginning to assert themselves on the world stage and INXS was the perfect vehicle to carry him to a global audience. You only have to look at the (lack of) fortune of INXS in the post Hutchence era as the remaining members tried and tried again to reignite their career to see how much influence and impact Hutchence carried.

The Swing is a reminder of not only Michael Hutchence in his prime, but INXS on the verge of becoming one of the biggest bands in the world, if only for a fleeting time. Listen Like Thieves would push into harder rock oriented territory, but overall that album lacked the consistency and certainly the creative innovation of a band reinventing itself as INXS did on The Swing. It was the band’s aggressive rock guitar sound developed on Thieves combined with their explorations into funk on The Swing that would ultimately deliver their greatest commercial success with Kick three years after they laid this blueprint down.