Kick
| INXS
Kick
Kick is the sixth studio album by the Australian rock band INXS, released in 1987 by WEA in Australia, Atlantic Records in the United States and Mercury Records in Europe. As the band’s most successful studio album, Kick has been certified six times platinum by the RIAA and spawned four US top 10 singles (“New Sensation”, “Never Tear Us Apart”, “Devil Inside” and “Need You Tonight”, the last of which reached the top of the US Billboard singles charts). At the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards, the band took home five Moonmen for the “Need You Tonight”/”Mediate” video.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
The 30th-anniversary edition of Kick affirms its status as a jewel of ’80s pop-rock.
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Classic Rock Review
This was the band’s sixth overall studio album since 1980 and marked a distinct migration from their New-Wave roots towards a more funk and soul oriented refinement of late eighties pop.
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Louder Sound
Very much an Australian phenomenon until ’87 – their many Australasian hits had barely registered in the UK – their sixth album, Kick, landed like a Thor’s hammer of lascivious arena pop, a virtually faultless, laser-targeted collection of synthetic sleaze that spoke of a band arriving fully formed at the very peak of their songcraft.
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AllMusic
More to the point, every song is catchy and memorable, branded with indelible hooks. Even without the band's sense of style, the flawless songcraft is intoxicating, and it's what makes Kick one of the best mainstream pop albums of the '80s.
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Stereogum
Almost every song on this album is iconic. It went 6x platinum in the U.S. and 7x platinum in Australia, and eight of its 12 tracks were technically singles -- and four of those were top 10 hits in the U.S.
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Paste Magazine
Kick sold millions of copies, spawned four huge singles, and generally made Michael Hutchence and company into one of the biggest acts on the planet.
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BBC Music
"New Sensation", "Devil Inside", "Need You Tonight", "Never Tear Us Apart", "Mystify": The Greatest Hits of INXS? No. Well yes, but it's actually called Kick. And what an album!
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Classic Pop Magazine
Kick was INXS’ sixth album, and the one that established the Aussie rockers on the world stage. With its scything, slashing guitars, big, bombastic drums and bass, spacey production, searing sax and Michael Hutchence’s cutely raunchy sexuality, it was one of the defining sounds of the era.
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uDiscovermusic
A defining albums of the 80s, ‘Kick’ alchemised INXS’s key influences into a highly original pop-rock hybrid, elevating the band to rock’s premier league.
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Smells Like Infinite Sadness
I wrote recently about how 1987 was the most pivotal year for music in the Reagan era. And one of the most iconic releases was certainly Kick (which celebrates its 30th anniversary October 19th, with a deluxe reissue due later this month). It would be the album that made INXS a household name.
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Amps and Green Screens
. . . I hope that those of you who hang in will join me in taking a look at one of the best albums of 1987, INXS’ Kick. And despite a slew of heavy metal releases in 1987, Kick will still be one of my favorites from that year.
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news.com.au
This is not only a classic rock album, but a classic rock album that grooves as well as grunts.
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The Second Disc
If you’ve never owned INXS’ Kick, rectify that immediately with an original copy of the album. I’m no audiophile, but I can tell you that nothing comes close.
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Audio Eclectica
INXS’s Kick is one of those timeless albums that stretches beyond just the 80’s.
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Beats Per Minute
With its slew of well-known pop-rock classics, Kick is the most ambitious effort of the Record Club to date, and the one they most make their own.
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Rolling Stone
The result of their rising ambition was Kick, their sixth studio LP, released 30 years ago this week. With its sensuous, danceable blend of rock, funk, pop and blues, the album peaked at Number Three on the Billboard charts, surpassing their earlier career-best ranking of Number 11 with 1985’s Listen Like Thieves, which generated their first Top 10 hit, “What You Need.”
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Icon Fetch
At its core, Kick is an album to shake your ass too. Sure, U2 was garnering all the Grammys for the Joshua Tree, but no one was clubbing to “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” That’s what sets Kick apart – it’s a solid record that just about everyone should like.
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Cryptic Rock
Their sixth overall studio album, Kick hit shelves on October 19th of 1987 and, within months, the unique sounds of the album would dominate radio airwaves turning INXS into a band capable of hosting stadiums. Still the band’s most successful album to date, Kick continues to sound as fresh and current 30 years later as it did when it first came out on vinyl and cassette.
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Robert Christgau
That these silly middlebrow hacks should hang in long enough to become stars is the usual biz fable. That they should do so with danceable rock and roll that sounds smart in the background is one more sign that the world is coming to an end.
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