EXPECT PLENTY OF TAUT GUITAR RIFFS, DANCEABLE BEATS AND BUCKETS OF SWAGGER

With the band finally making waves outside of Australia and New Zealand, INXS didn’t take any chances with their fourth LP, recruiting the one and only

Nile Rodgers in the same year that the disco legend produced No.1s for superstars Duran Duran (The Reflex) and Madonna

(Like A Virgin). The Swing didn’t exactly propel INXS into the same big league – although it reached the top spot back home, it could only peak at No.52 on the Billboard

200 in the US

– but it continued to steady the ship until monster hit-making gold was struck.

Recorded in various Sydney studios, New York’s famous Power Station and Oxfordshire’s The Manor, the latter with

Nick Launay (Midnight Oil, The Birthday Party), the globe-trotting LP did at least provide the band with another bona fide smash.

And although the world peace messaging of the Daryl Hall-assisted Original Sin – remarkably their first and still only Australian No.1 single – is about as nuanced as your average

Miss World speech, it deservedly remained a setlist staple.

The sorry state of the universe in 1984 appeared to be a prevalent topic of conversation for the band, with Dancing On The Jetty also displaying something of a hippy mentality (“Watch the world argue/ Argue with itself/ Who’s going to teach me/ Peace and happiness”). But you don’t look to an INXS album for profound statements on diplomatic issues. You do, however, expect plenty of taut guitar riffs, danceable beats and buckets of swagger. And The Swing certainly delivers on that front, with

Melting In The Sun, Face The Change and Burn For You all serving as Kick-era prototypes. Meanwhile, Johnson’s Aeroplane, a celebratory, if sonically creepy, ode to the nation’s farmers, also proved that the Aussies could be just as magnetic when they weren’t soundtracking the party.

Interestingly, the UK still didn’t bite, with The Swing’s four singles and the album itself all failing to make any significant headway there whatsoever. But this would be the last time that the land of Paula Yates, The Tube and

The Big Breakfast, remained completely immune to Michael Hutchence’s rock star charms.