INXS released their new album, “Original Sin,” on Feb. 22. This album is supposed to be a combination of their greatest hits and I would say that INXS pulled a stellar album together.
The first song on the album, “Mediate,” is interesting and kind of strange. The singer’s voice doesn’t actually sound like typical singing. As if that wasn’t strange enough, the lyrics are mostly verbs. “Fascinate/ Deviate/ Reinstate/ Liberate/ To moderate/ Recreate/ Or detonate/ Annihilate/ Atomic fate.”
The next song, “Original Sin,” features Rob Thomas and brings the album back to normal. The song is poppy and I can’t say that I don’t love it, with my only complaint being that the song brings race into the song. Seriously, was that line necessary? “Dream on white boy/ Dream on black girl.”
“Never Tear Us Apart,” though it is a love song, is not terrible. It’s the perfect amount of sappy. I could picture the cast of “Grease” dancing to it. The best line of the song is, “I was standing/ You were there/ Two worlds collided/ And they could never ever tear us apart.”
INXS does a love song again called “Beautiful Girl” featuring Pat Monahan. Once again, the song doesn’t make me want to cringe from too much cheesy sentiment. INXS pairs beautiful lyrics with such nice background music. “Now where did you find her/ Among the neon lights/ That haunt the streets outside.”
Their next song, “New Sensation,” featuring Deborah de Corral, has a very airy upbeat ring to it that I just can’t get over. It’s a song that just makes you happy. I would definitely recommend listening to it.
INXS keeps the upbeat music flowing with “Just Keep Walking” featuring Dan Sultan. The song has a nice pairing of instruments that I have never heard together. The lyrics also don’t disappoint with clever lines like, “Clever words on smooth tongue talking/ Shove it brother, just keep walking.”
“Mystify” features Loane, and it has a very strange beat. I don’t like how the lyrics repeat “mystify” many times, but I guess that’s forgivable. Some of the other lyrics are catchy such as “I need perfection/ Some twisted selection/ That tangles me/ To keep me alive.”
INXS adds another upbeat song to their album with “To Look At You” featuring Kav Temperly. I can’t say that when I listened to the song I didn’t ponder what some lyrics meant, such as “What is the name to call/ For a different kind of girl/ Who knows the feelings/ Never the words?”
The band throws in a saxophone solo in “Kicks” featuring Nikka Costa. The song is upbeat and pairs great vocals with good instrumentation.
For “Don’t Change,” I would suggest finding a video on YouTube where INXS plays it live.
INXS’s greatest hits album “Original Sin” truly showcases their best songs, and I would recommend not missing it.