Album Essentials: INXS "Elegantly Wasted" (1997)
By Dave Swanson - Summit FM Contributor
For the better part of twenty years, INXS had been busy building their reputation, starting in their native Australia, and gradually conquering the rest of the world with their driving, energetic mix of pop, rock, and dance music. Cracking the radio waves, and MTV, with the 1982 hit 'The One Thing,' it was a constant upward momentum from that point on. Hits like 'Don't Change,' 'New Sensation,' ‘Devil Inside,’ and the chart topping 'Need You Tonight,' made them one of the biggest bands of the era. The vocals and stage presence of lead singer Michael Hutchence also added to that success.
Fast forward to 1996, and the band are getting ready to get down to album number 10, as well as nearing the twenty-year mark as a band. They had recently left Atlantic Records for the new home of PolyGram, and seemed to be, in a way, trying to condense all aspects of their sound into this new album. After having worked with such notable producers as Chris Thomas, Nile Rodgers, and Mark Opitz, this time around the band chose producer Bruce Fairbairn, who had much success with many hard rock acts such as Aerosmith, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, and Poison. According to Fairbairn, the band were centered on capturing the energy of the performance.
"The main thing we wanted to do was to keep the spirit going, and the attitude up, define what's original about the band, but sound fresh," singer Michael Hutchence said in an interview upon the album's release. "It's ten albums, you know, and we've tried all kinds of stuff on all the albums. It's a difficult balancing act to try and get it right, what's unique about us without repeating ourselves."
It had been four years since their last release, 'Full Moon, Dirty Hearts,' in 1993, and the band felt they had something to prove. “We really wanted to get off the old carousel for a while,” Hutchence told Australia’s The Album Network magazine in March 1997. “We have recorded an album every 12 to 18 months over the last five or six years. With the completion of 'Full Moon, Dirty Hearts,' we also fulfilled our contract with Atlantic Records. It just seemed like the logical time to take a break.”
A look back at the album shows that the band still had a lot to offer. The dynamic title track alone certainly captured what Hutchence stated as trying to show off what was great about the band while staying fresh.
Three singles were released from the LP, but none of them managed to break big. The album itself, as well, fell outside of hit status around the world. Despite the lack of chart success for the album, there was still much interest in the band as they set out on a world tour following the album's release.
Everything came to a crashing end on November 22, 1997, when Michael Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room of an apparent suicide, at age 37. All the drama and trauma that followed has overshadowed the album itself over time.