A lot of fans point to Full Moon, Dirty Hearts as where the band began it's free fall. I think they are over exaggerating a bit. Sure, it's not in the same league of Kick and X. But it's not as bad as it's been made out to be. I will agree with the consensus that the hits are few and far between on this one. But I don't need or even crave radio friendly pop songs. I want interesting songs that go outside the box, something that pushes the band as well as the listener and we get that here.

One of the coolest tracks on here for me is Time. Why? It's basically INXS + Metal. Well, as close to Metal as you're gonna get from these guys. But it definitely is pushing them into a very Hard Rock mode and they pull it off very well. Love it. Now another Hard Rocking Song is Please (You Got That...), a duet with the one and only Ray Charles which is about the coolest pairing I've ever come across because of the song itself with Ray singing what doesn't really seem to be a song you'd expect him to be on. Both Ray and Michael OWN this hard rockin/swing song.

Close your eyes when you listen to Full Moon, Dirty Hearts and you'll immediately hear the influence of Pink Floyd. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that this is another duet with Chrissie Hynde.. I find nothing wrong with this song at all. Freedom Deep is definitely influenced by U2. There is no getting around it. It's straight in the vein of some of the biggest, most well known U2 anthems and it's way cool.

As you can tell by just the last 3 three songs I mentioned in how diverse the album is and I think that's why a lot of people have problems with it. Like I said, I've always liked the fact that INXS constantly reinvented themselves and this album is a good example of that.

Fave Songs: The Gift, Time, Please, (You Got That...), Full Moon Dirty Hearts, Freedom Deep and Kill The Pain. This album gets a Co-MVP award to Time and Please (You Got That....)

Elegantly Wasted is the final album with Michael Hutchence as lead singer for INXS before his untimely death. As far as swan songs (albums) go, both Michael and INXS went out on a high. This album just  f u c k i n g  kicks major ass. As much as I love and listen to Kick, I've actually listened to this album more. It's a harder sounding band, but maintaining a very melodic sense to all the songs. This is were the band was able to finally find that elusive sound that they had been searching for the past couple of albums. Now when I say "sound", I just mean that instead of having every song sound completely different from the next, on here the album overall jells as one. There are plenty of hard rocking songs here, but even the slower songs feel at home.

Speaking of slow songs, I gotta jump right into Everything which has the purest vocal track for Michael here. It's so raw and in your face and it's awesome. The arrangement gets an A+. You can't help but sing along. The funny thing is, whenever I listen to the track version on the album, I literally sing along not just with the band, but the people in the music video. If you don't know what I'm talking about, definitely check out the video link below for Everything to get what I mean. It will all make sense.

Another powerhouse song for Michael showcasing his range as a singer and his tone is Searching, which is a very bluesy based song. As much as I love the version on the album, there is a live version that is my favorite that I think shows off him, the band and the song in spades. I will have the live version posted below as well.

There are just so many great songs on here that its amazing how underrated the album is. Not just with INXS fans, but with the music community at large. I'm trying to figure out exactly where I would rate this on my all time favorite albums list. It's definitely Top 10 material.

Okay, back to the songs. Don't Lose Your Head was the bands entry to movies when it was used in Face / Off. It's a straight ahead rocker. Great chorus by the way. As good as this song is, it only gets better. Head straight to I'm Just A Man, Shake The Tree and She Is Rising and you will understand exactly why I play this album so much. This may be an INXS album, but this is definitely a showcase for Michael and a fitting tribute to his musical genius.

Fave Songs: Show Me, Elegantly Wasted, Everything, Don't Lose Your Head, Searching, I'm Just A Man, Girl On Fire, We Are Thrown Together, Shake The Tree, She Is Rising and Building Bridges. Yes, I just named all the songs. Sue me. So, which gets the MVP award for this one? This is really giving me a headache trying to do the album justice. Bah! I'm gonna go with Shake The Tree.

The album cover for Elegantly Wasted is one of my all time faves. It's just a cool composition with how everyone is framed within. One note about the back cover above. As you will notice it's not the US Version as you can see the last song, Shine was not release on any US pressings of the album. This is the only back cover I could find online. So, this will have to suffice for now. I'm also adding my favorite Live version of Elegantly Wasted below. If you wanna OD on a great album, you absolutely can't go wrong with this one.

Shine Like It Does: The Anthology is the main reason why I never bothered to go back and get the earlier INXS albums. I picked this up back in 2001 (has it really been that long?). I really didn't need to get it for any of their biggest hits since I already had their vinyl albums. But the biggest draw for me was getting 3 songs in particular that I didn't have: Don't Change, Good Times and The Strangest Party.

Good Times has Michael Hutchence and Jimmy Barnes trading lead vocals throughout the song. They couldn't be more different in style and sound between the two of them and yet the song works incredibly well. It's definitely a party song that leans heavily on boogie and it ROCKS!

The Strangest Party (These Are the Times) is a very cool song in a lot of ways. From the arrangement to the singing it's very addictive to listen to. But there are a couple of things in the song that I gotta point out. Aside from Hutchence's singing, the most identifying aspect musically is the drums and the bass parts. Jon Farriss came up with a really cool sound for the drums and they were able to capture on tape as is. The other standout for the song is definitely Garry Gary Beers bass playing. He doesn't get a lot of credit for what he brings to the plate, but if you listen to Strangest Party you will hear what an amazing player he is. And the tone he gets here is so  f u c k i n g  sick! It's subtle, but just listen to his bass lines and you will get just how much of a rock the guy is to the band.

As a whole, this set is pretty damn good as it covers a lot of their biggest hits and then some. Is it complete? No. Far from it. But if they were to include all the songs I think should also be on here, then it would be an additional 2 disc. But I do recommend this set for sure.

NOTE: I have to correct myself from an earlier post. When I said that Don't Lose Your Head was their entry into movie soundtrack songs, I had completely forgotten about Good Times and The Strangest Party. My bad.

Clearly this isn't an INXS song, but what a lot of people don't know is that the song Stuck In A Moment by U2 is about Michael Hutchence and his suicide. I could tell you about it, but I will just let Bono tell you instead.......

What can I say about INXS that I haven't already said? For starters, as great as they were as a studio band, they were even better as a Live band and Live Baby Live is the pinnacle of their career. Simply put, this DVD f*ckin' rocks! It's one of the most incredible sounding DVDs you will EVER come across. You get a few choices in what audio format you want to run through your home theater system. The smart money is to always go with DTS to get the full spectrum of that show. Everything is there and if you have a solid Subwoofer, you will definitely feel it. Mine tops out at 500 Watts and I was only using maybe a 1/4 of it because it was just bone-rattling awesome. It was like a locomotive was running through the house and it was clean with no clipping at all.

As for the show itself, INXS has never sounded better and they were in a groove. Add to the fact that they were playing Wembley Stadium with an over enthusiastic crowd, it was a recipe for success as they pretty much caught lightening in a bottle with everything coming together perfectly. The concert itself is just one half the equation with the other half being the Retrospective/Documentary with the surviving band members of INXS talking about what it was like that night. Interjected into the talking heads segments of the Documentary are rare, behind the scenes stuff leading up to, during and after the show. It is kind of a 'Day in the Life of INXS' as they chronicle everything. I highly recommend this to both fans and non-fans of INXS. The DVD is one of the best out there with a kick-ass show that STILL delivers so many years later.

Owwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Dayum, that hurt just reading it. I hope for a speedy recovery and which him luck in his healing.