INXS - Pretty Vegas

It’s easy to forget, with all the hyperbole surrounding the legacy of Michael Hutchence that, really, INXS had sucked for a few years before his untimely demise. Post Kick their albums hadn’t been anything to write home about, and the Live Baby Live size concerts were long behind them. Whatever your opinion of the reality television experiment, the fact is Michael Hutchence wasn’t the be all and end all of INXS – their day had well and truly passed before his death in 1997.

Unfortunately the thought that Rock Star just might be ridiculous enough to work was unfounded. While eventual winner J.D Fortune has an interesting if unremarkable voice, it can’t save what is really, just a boring song. And considering it is intended as some sort of comeback, it’s almost unforgivable. Some songs just never get out of second gear. Pretty Vegas has an engine that won’t even turn over. Completely devoid of any of the funk or soul that characterised INXS at their best, Pretty Vegas only made me love the old material even more.

You can hardly blame the lads for trying to resurrect their careers, after all, they were the biggest band on the planet for a while.  Those days are long gone, and fuck it, I’ll say it – Michael would be turning in his grave.