IF YOU WEREN’T AWARE OF ITS ORIGINS, YOU MAY ASSUME ITS 11 TRACKS WERE OUTTAKES FROM THE VAULTS

Following a short stint with Jon Stevens of fellow Aussie rockers Noiseworks, INXS continued to dismay the purists by selecting their Hutchence replacement through the least rock’n’roll way possible: a prime-time TV talent show.

After 11 weeks of showboating, J.D. Fortune, a Canadian former Elvis impersonator chosen for his “slightly dangerous edge”, was given the poisoned chalice. Alas, victory was always going to be a no-win situation. Try to stamp your identity on the band and risk alienating what’s left of their fanbase. Try to replicate Hutchence’s distinctive tones and risk being dismissed as a tribute act. From the opening notes of the LP that no one really asked for, it’s clear he had chosen option B. In fact, if you weren’t aware of Switch’s tawdry origins, you may assume that its 11 tracks were long-lost outtakes from the vaults. And ones, for the most part, you wished had stayed there.

Sunset Strip throwback Hot Girls, for example, may be the nadir of the group’s discography. Hutchence skilfully treaded that line between pure horn dog and sleaze. Fortune, however, is about as unsubtle as a copy of Nuts magazine. The fact that, like the rest of the LP, it was produced by Guy Chambers perhaps explains why his once-winning set-up with Robbie Williams had dissolved so fast. Pretty Vegas, a surprise US Top 40 hit, and Like It Or Not are similarly overcooked.

Switch isn’t entirely without merit. Afterglow and God’s Top Ten are tributes to the band’s fallen idol, the latter touchingly addressed to his daughter Tiger Lily, while Perfect Strangers, boasts the kind of sky-scraping chorus that once put the group on rock’s A-list. But, like Queen’s

Paul Rodgers-fronted The Cosmos Rocks, Switch proves that some frontmen are simply irreplaceable.