This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Given the tragic, tabloid-fodder nature of Michael Hutchence’s self-inflicted death in a Sydney hotel room in 1997, morbid curiousity could generate more interest in the INXS frontman’s solo album than there would have been had he lived.
Sad as that is, at least it might give this worthwhile disc the audience it deserves. Despite being posthumously completed by collaborators Andy Gill (Gang of Four) and Danny Saber (Black Grape), this 13-song offering — most of which actually predates the INXS finale Elegantly Wasted — seldom feels cobbled together. From the glammy David Bowie-style kick of opener Let Me Show You to the trip-hoppy denouement of Slide Away, these are fully formed tracks stylistically balanced between Hutchence’s pop-star commercialism, Gill’s new wave experimentalism and Saber’s electronic tomfoolery. It isn’t trailblazing genius, but it’s a long way from disposable pop fluff — and a disc that reminds us it’s Hutchence’s life, not his death, that bears remembering.
