Elegantly Wasted

INXS: Michael Hutchence (vocals, guitar); Kirk Pengilly (guitar, saxophone); Andrew Farriss (guitar, keyboards); Tim Farriss (guitar); Garry Gary Beers (bass); Jon Farriss (drums).
The Margarita Horns: Tom Keenlyside (tenor saxophone); Bill Runge (baritone saxophone); Paul Baron, Derry Byrne (trumpet).
Additional personnel: Luis Conti (percussion); Tania Hancheroff, Joani Bye, Billie Godfrey, Caroline MacKendrick (background vocals).
Recorded at The Armoury Studio, Vancouver, Canada and El Cortijo, Marbella, Spain.
Since their first album in 1980, INXS' sound has been consistent--a hook-laden melange of rock-based music that borrows freely from soul and dance. On ELEGANTLY WASTED, the Farriss brothers continue their studio tinkering, from the faux-techno rumbling bass and chicken-scratch guitar of the title track's homage to decadence to the East-meets-West "Shake The Tree"'s Japanese-flavored strings and twangy guitar. Like Mick Jagger before him, singer Michael Hutchence can lay down a quick rap in a sea of funk, as in "Don't Lose Your Head," or croon seductively ("We Are Thrown Together.") As has been the case throughout their long career, INXS remains on a distinctive path, producing music that continues to defy simple classification.