INXS – Kick 25

It goes without saying that Kick is a 5 star album. All killer no filler and it still sounds incredible 25 years on. But it's not so much about what's in this Super Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition of Kick, it's what's missing. Here was an opportunity to gather everything "Kick" related in one box and I'm afraid it can only be called a major disappointment.

It comes as a 10" x 10" slipcase. Inside is an 80 page hard back book with relevant pictures and the story of the album. It's not bad, has a couple of pics I've not seen before and it's a very quick read but, THE most unbelievable thing that's missing from the book are the song lyrics. The four discs are housed in slots inside a gatefold card sleeve which can sometimes be bad for scratching discs. My cds were all ok but the dvd has marks on it already (it arrived in this condition). There's also a HUGE replica poster for the release of the "Mystify" single, folded up into squares to fit inside the 10" slipcase. All those creases make it unsuitable for framing so you can't do anything with it except look at it once, fold it up again and put it away. And a sheet of newly designed stickers with the song titles on them. Why??? (obviously Universal think that Inxs fans are still teenagers). Now onto the music.

Disc one, the album itself is nicely mastered for the new millennium and as Kick was remastered and re-released in 2011, I'm guessing that the album tracks are as released in 2011. All good so far.

Disc two rounds up all the demos, out-takes and live cuts from the previous INXS - Kick deluxe edition released in 2004 with the addition of two extra tracks. There's an alternate shorter so called guitar version of "Move On", previously only available on some "Need you Tonight" singles. The other extra track is the superb "Do What You Do" as featured on the Soundtrack for the movie "Pretty In Pink" and the "New Sensation" single b-side. Even though it dates from sessions for the bands previous album Listen Like Thieves, I've always thought it belonged on an Inxs album and finally here it is.

Disc three, only released with the Super Deluxe set, focuses on period remixes/previously unreleased mixes and is the carrot for fans. What a massive disappointment this disc is. With a skimpy running time of just over 33 minutes there's a few choice singles missing from this disc. Things Kick off ok with a Soul Version of "Never Tear Us Apart". I've not heard this mix before. It sounds more like a demo than a finished track and includes some studio chat from Hutch at the start and end. Next are the remixes of "New Sensation" and "Devil Inside". Good to include the 12" Extended mix of "Devil Inside" but the master that's been used for this track is very dull and flat when compared to the quality of the other tracks in this set. It almost sounds, to my ears at least, like it's been sourced from vinyl and put through a de-noise filter but I can't be sure. The shorter Australian single remix of "Devil Inside" is absent. Instead we get the 7" single mix which apart from a slightly slower tempo is pretty much the same as the album mix. Next up, one of the most sought after Inxs tracks, "Different World". First featured in the film "Crocodile Dundee" it was originally released in Australia as the b-side to the "Listen Like Thieves" single and given international release as the b-side to "Never Tear Us Apart". There were two different mixes, a 7" version and 12" extended mix. Why oh why have we only been given the 7" mix? Disc three finishes with a 2012 remix of "Calling All Nations". Whilst Kids On Bridges have done an ok job remixing this great album track it sounds really out of place here next to the vintage 80's mixes.

Here's a list of what I believe is missing from this set that I know of, there could be more.
Different World - 12" Version
Guns In The Sky - Kookaburra Mix
Need You Tonight - Ben Liebrand Mix
Need You Tonight - Mendelson 7" mix
Devil Inside - Australian Single Version

Disc four, also only available in the Super Deluxe set is a dvd containing a 35 minute track by track interview doco with the three Farris Brothers (no sign of Kirk Pengilly or Garry Gary Beers) and some short archival footage of Michael Hutchence. Recorded over a year ago I was really expecting a "Classic Album" style retrospective doco. Some sort of a look at the making of this album but all we get is Andrew, Tim And Jon talking about the songs, how much fun they are to play and a very basic look at how some of them were written. Hmm. Next up is a 15 minute montage of home video footage of life on the road shot mainly by Jon and accompanied by an audio track of songs from Kick edited together by Andrew. It's mildly interesting visually but as it has almost NO archive audio is rather pointless. Finally there's three promo videos one of which, "Guns In The Sky", makes it's digital debut. It's followed by "Mystify" complete with it's title card intro then "Need You Tonight". That's it, only three of the seven videos made for this album. Why all the other promos are missing is unexplainable. It's nice to have the "Guns" promo (all 2 minutes of it) and the alternate start version for "Mystify" but to leave off "Devil Inside, New Sensation and Never Tear Us Apart etc." beggars belief. It's another reason why this Super Deluxe Edition is soooo disappointing.

The three stars are for ok packaging, some new content and the amazing album that "Kick" is. If you're not a devoted fan then save your pennies. Either the single disc 2011 remaster or the two disc INXS - Kick 25th Anniversary edition which is nowhere near as expensive will do.

"Sometimes You Kick, Sometimes You Get Kicked!"