ELEGANTLY WASTED IS A LARGELY OPTIMISTIC AFFAIR STEEPED IN THE DECADENCE OF INXS’S IMPERIAL PHASE

In the three years since 1994’s The Greatest Hits, Hutchence had been arrested for both assaulting a paparazzi photographer and drug possession, entered into a tabloid-friendly relationship with Paula Yates after one of the most flirtatious interviews ever captured on TV and started work on an eponymous solo record inspired by Black Grape. Throw in the loss of the Farriss brothers’ mother Jill and Pengilly’s divorce, and it’s a wonder that Elegantly Wasted ever got made at all.

Sadly, due to the tragic events that unfolded seven months later, the album proved to be less of a triumphant return and more of an epitaph. The band’s world was torn apart when Hutchence was found dead in his Sydney hotel room on 22 November 1997 at the age of just 37.

There is an inevitable temptation, therefore, to rake through every lyric looking for clues of his deeply troubled state. And yet Elegantly Wasted is a largely optimistic, vibrant affair steeped in the decadence of INXS’s imperial phase. The Britpop-esque title track was reportedly inspired by a wild evening with long-time pal Bono. Don’t Lose Your Head is a defiant riposte to Liam Gallagher (“Shot your mouth off like a kid/ Who’s scared to have a heart/ You’re losing grip of what really matters”) which added further fuel to the INXS/Oasis rivalry: a year earlier, Noel had wounded Hutchence by declaring him a has-been live on the BRIT Awards stage. And even opener Show Me (Cherry Baby), a tribute to a late singer once mentored by the Aussie rock god, boasts a Kick-like essence.

Co-producer Bruce Fairbairn, the mastermind behind Aerosmith’s Get A Grip and Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, also revealed that Hutchence was in good spirits throughout its recording. But the band’s new-found vigour sadly didn’t restore their former commercial glories: Elegantly Wasted only just scraped the UK Top 20 and missed the US Top 40 altogether. Noel’s very public assertion had undoubtedly been cruel, but it was ultimately grounded in truth.

Of course, the record didn’t turn out to be the group’s unplanned swansong purported at the time of Hutchence’s untimely passing. The surviving five-piece would valiantly, and some would say foolishly, soldier on for another two albums. However, with several tracks worthy of joining their previous compilation, it remains a solid, if unspectacular, farewell from the only incarnation of INXS that truly matters.