INXS "Kick" vs. George Michael "Faith

each has been polled and Kick got a lot more votes
INXS Poll: The best track on Kick
Cuz You Gotta Have Faith: The George Michael "Faith" Poll

Faith has some amazing songs, but they're swimming in a pool of dreck. Kick also has amazing songs setting atop some perfectly fine and wholly acceptable songs.

Kick.

Faith has some amazing songs, but they're swimming in a pool of dreck

bullllshiiiiiiiiiiit

i often think about this era because it was the last time that suave white men were welcome on the pop charts in droves before, well, 2013

Kick by a large margin.

Kick and not just because it was the first cassette I ever bought with my own money.

I owned both of these as a kid, but definitely remember listening to Kick more. Time to relisten to both, though.

I owned Kick. I never owned Faith. My favorite song across both is "Father Figure". I wouldn't have linked these albums because INXS always scanned as pop-rock to me and George Michael scanned as pop-R&B but I can see why they'd be compared.

Based on singles only--I have Faith, but only remember the singles--much, much prefer Faith. Used to find INXS very annoying. Ditto "Father Figure" as my favorite.

re kick
Atlantic Records was not happy with the result, as manager Chris Murphy remembers: They hated it, absolutely hated it. They said there was no way they could get this music on rock radio. They said it was suited for black radio, but they didn't want to promote it that way. The president of the label told me that he'd give us $1 million to go back to Australia and make another album.

Of course, the best blue-eyed soul from 1987 was "Never Gonna Give You Up," but enough about my bilious private life.

Faith, and it's not even close. Vastly prefer the singles on Listen Like Thieves and x.

"What You Need" and "Falling Down The Mountain" were good but I remember hating the rest of Listen Like Thieves

"Need You Tonight" -> "Devil Inside" -> "New Sensation" -> "Never Tear Us Apart" -> "Mystify" = a fucking great run of singles

Loved "Shine Like It Does," the title track, "Biting Bullets," "This Time." Good album.

yeah hating the rest of Listen Like Thieves is weird if you like inxs at all.

father figure is the best song on either recd but kick is stronger top-to-bottom so kick.

the Jam-Lewis remix of "Monkey" kills both albums dead though.

otm

The six singles from Faith are untouchable.

George without Andrew isn't interesting.

I gotta go with Faith as the lesser of two evils... that INXS album was such a letdown compared to their previous LPs.

Faith by a stubbly denim-clad mile. barely a bad track.

love inxs and love kick but this is easily faith

honestly, Kick made me like INXS after being disappointed by Listen Like Thieves; before that album, I was only into their singles (and really I don't dig most of their pre-Kick album tracks)

Kick

do do do... dadadada dadada do!

really I don't dig most of their pre-Kick album tracks

The Swing is where most of INXS's deep cut treasures are buried, imo.

^^^

Interesting poll this - think I'll vote for Faith, as I could find something interesting aboit all of the tracks - whereas I faintly remember more filler on Kick. Also, "Father Figure"

can i vote for Kick even if i haven't heard all of Faith?

Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 >>>>> Kick > Faith

only a couple of rizlas between those last 2 tho

Faith by a mileeeeeeeeeee

Kick was one of the first albums I ever bought (along with Information Society s/t!). I listened to it so much at the time, it's kinda painful to go back to it now. I won't say Faith is less dated, but it holds up far better for me.

FAITH

Only one of these has One More Try, so...

KICK

re kick
Atlantic Records was not happy with the result, as manager Chris Murphy remembers: They hated it, absolutely hated it. They said there was no way they could get this music on rock radio. They said it was suited for black radio, but they didn't want to promote it that way. The president of the label told me that he'd give us $1 million to go back to Australia and make another album.

i bet if they were white, they could've got that album payed on rock radio anyway. oh, wait.

Only one of these has One More Try, so...

― Master of Treacle, Sunday, August 11, 2013 5:17 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is anyone else cracking up at the juxtaposition here

lololol

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5543/9495453136_8052cbb845_n.jpg

btw that was first concert where our moms let us hang out alone

although honestly i can't listen to it either -- too heavy with oooooold memories that i like to keep encased in amber where they belong
sometimes i can listen to "never tear us apart" but that's it
once i heard "mystify" on the radio and it was a bit much

I know what you mean, it's like a mainline right into something that is too too too! I stick to the more fun-lovin, less-intense stuff like "I Send A Message" these days but there is nothing quite as awesome on VERY LOUD speakers as "What You Need" or the like

INXS - Classicking or Dudding?

I played new sensation at my wedding and it cleared the dance floor. It was the worst moment of the best day of my life.

You should've played "Original Sin."

I actually wanted to play what you need, but my wife insisted that new sensation would go over better. Now we'll never know what would have happened.

should have played "Need You Tonight" followed by "I Want Your Sex"

This is rull tough.

Devil Inside > Faith
Father Figure > Never Tear Us Apart
Monkey > New Sensation
Need You Tonight + Mediate > I Want Your Sex
One More Try > Mystify

voted Faith

My first concert in middle school I had a choice between U2 ("Joshua Tree" tour), INXS ("Kick" tour) and Peter Gabriel ("So" tour). I went U2, which was good. Grown up me would now probably prefer retroactively the Peter Gabriel tour. But 12 or whatever year old me back then, in retrospect, probably would have had the most fun at INXS.

INXS is fine I guess

Faith is a towering masterpiece

these were two really big childhood albums for me, around the time when i first started picking out "my music." i don't know if i can choose.

I have never really felt compelled to listen to either of these albums. they were both released two months before I was born.

Faith is a towering masterpiece

otm otm otm

I do admit sometimes I really, really want to hear "Hard Day"

I love "Hand to Mouth"

DON'T LET ME DOWN

never been able to focus on the album tracks from either, but Faith was a few more singles I love than Kick does, so Faith

Faith is like 66% singles so it can easily ride on the strength of them.

For some reason I've never been able to get "Never Tear Us Apart," and I find "Devil Inside" really grating nowadays. No, I haven't, Michael. Stop asking. I haven't. Stop asking.

I've always thought that "Devil Inside" threatens to break into "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" in its last minute

(there's a bit of cross-thread pollination)

imagine Hutchence mumbling "Saturday, Saturday" over the keyboard and bass bits.

not only can i hear it, i now hear just how elton john a lot of their shit was.

Some of us don't know whyyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyi
I was standing
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah

wasn't crazy about 'devil inside' at the time (and i was CRAZY about the other singles) and now anytime i hear it all i can think of is beavis and butthead saying 'if you play this song backwards it say "this sucks"'

I have Calling All Nations stuck in my head once in a while. Was it used in a movie or something?

everyone showing scorn to inxs on this thread is dead to me

that said, "the loved one" needs to be stuffed into a barrel and dissolved in acid, walter-white style

Both are amazing but Kick is kind of the greatest ever.

How has this thread gotten this long and not had a thorough discussion of "I Want Your Sex"?!?! The fact that this song dropped at exactly puberty o'clock gives it a special little gilded place in my <3

One clear memory involves a retreat related to my dad's job at which there was a small coed preteen cadre, the first I had ever spent any time with. There was one boy named Olin who was a total maniac (he got into trouble every 10 min or so) and I remember being at some restaurant and that song came on the radio. In the middle of the restaurant, Olin jumped up and started doing the cabbage patch to "I Want Your Sex" and no one stopped him. He was going to do what he wanted to do anyway. And I couldn't help it, I was totally staring at him. He was about 20 feet away and then he started getting closer. Then he started staring at me, and it appeared that he was dancing ~at~ me. That had never happened before. He was a pretty good dancer iirc. I wanted to do something, to smile, to move a hand or foot or something, but I was completely paralyzed with fear of what I would do if I moved at all. I will never forget it. He looked at me and held up his fingers during the "one on one" part. I was 12. He may have been 13.

lock thread

NOT EVERYBODY DOES IT, BUT EVERYBODY SHOULD

it's fun to imagine george michael singing the songs on kick, and michael hutchence singing the songs on faith - i think they'd both ace pretty much everything, but hutchence doing "i want your sex" and michael doing "never tear us apart" is what i keep coming back to

"I Want Your Sex" rivals "Papa Don't Preach" in the pull-the-carpet sweepstakes (i.e. OH IT'S ABOUT SAFE MONOGAMOUS SEX).

That is so true. Fortunately, at the time, I didn't know that.

"i want your sex" was amazing, it was this giant dose of sex positivity at possibly the apex of AIDS fear, right when i was like 14 years old. i don't quite know how to put this but while it felt naughty and dangerous it also didn't feel cynical or exploitative, it was like a big affirmation that all those weird feelings were OKAY and actually FUN and sex wasn't something to be scared of. it was like this authority outside the school or the family that was giving you its blessing to, like, bone down and feel awesome about it

when I was ~11 I was getting a cavity filled and the dentist let me listen to his walkman and it had Faith in it. It felt really weird to be a kid with a drill in my mouth and I Want Your Sex playing on the headphones.

"weird"
hehehe

Kick due to its remarkable consistency, though the first side of Faith is just as awesome.

have we polled Listen Like Thieves?

I think I'm right in saying the majority of the instrumentation on Faith was GM himself

Has anything ever been written about the particular sexual dynamics at play on Faith, with partners constantly defined as "teachers" or "father figures?" Even "I Want Your Sex," with its "I'm not your [father/mother/brother/etc]" implies a similar power relationship.

If you add 1986's "A Different Corner," you get a series of songs in which Michael shows a guilt-suffused acceptance of his sexuality.

I think I'm right in saying the majority of the instrumentation on Faith was GM himself

Yep -- except for bass and gee-tar.

Nice fact about "One More Try":

It was a triple-chart #1, also topping the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts and becoming the last number-one single on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart by a white male artist until Robin Thicke's "Lost Without U" (2007).

How appropriate!

(though, seriously, when I was listening to Faith the other day for the first time in years, I was struck by how much it sounded like the album Timberlake would have made if he'd been 21 in 1987)

These are very evenly matched IMO, with Kick having only a slight edge over Faith.

how many albums in the 80s were over 60% singles? I know of Thriller and Faith...

Can't Slow Down
Hysteria
Suddenly
Born in the USA
Control

I can think of a few others

ahh yes, forgot about "Hysteria". that was impressive too given that it had 12 songs on it.

She's So Unusual?

Wait.... KICK by INXS is blue-eyed soul pop?

I actually quite like both albums, but they're -- to my mind -- entirely different beasts. George never rocks. George never tries to rock. It's not his thing. INXS, meanwhile, are quite capable of rocking. Not much on KICK as on other albums, but they rock all the same. George doesn't. Thus, different ends are achieved.

INXS' finest hour, I'd suggest, remains LISTEN LIKE THIEVES.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I love Faith so much that it honestly boggles my mind that this is even a question.

The opening drums on "Guns in the Sky" sounded about as huge as possible on my tinny little Walkman.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

huh

having listened to both a lot lately, i disagree!

wow

These results make perfect sense to me. All of Kick rules, whereas the second half of Faith has some drecky filler.

how many albums in the 80s were over 60% singles? I know of Thriller and Faith...
Forever Your Girl
Rhythm Nation 1814
Bad
"whitney houston" & "whitney"
huey lewis "sports"
purple rain
invisible touch
bryan adams "reckless"

killer poll, mizzell.

i started it because i really couldn't decide which one i liked better. the discussion pushed me towards Faith, and then Kick won. I didn't vote.

hutchence doing "i want your sex" and michael doing "never tear us apart" is what i keep coming back to

OK, after imagining these, I really want them to exist!

the Jam-Lewis remix of "Monkey" kills both albums dead though.

― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, August 8, 2013 7:40 PM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dang I hadn't heard this before but it is killer

Jam/Lewis giving it the full "Sign O' The Times" treatment there at the 1:25 mark.

I've said this elsewhere, but in August 1988 I made a mixtape to play on my knock-off Alba 'Walkman' during a week's holiday in Norfolk with my parents, and 'Monkey' was definitely the highlight (vying for second and third place: Michael Jackson's 'Dirty Diana' and Lipsync's 'Funky Town').

(the Jam & Lewis 7" remix of 'Monkey' specifically)

"We make decisions...that's what we do...that's what we do"

These albums are so damn good that making a list of the Top 5 singles betwixt them is bound to lead to serious (and worthy) arguments. Among the singles, I feel "Father Figure", "Need You Tonight/Mediate" and "One More Try" are the most colossal, with "Never Tear Us Apart" barely securing the 4th spot. ("One More Try" and "Never Tear Us Apart" kinda occupied the same cultural space, at least in late-'80s So Cal). "Monkey" - Jam/Lewis or original - is a solid 5th.

"Kick" wins the battle for me because I love 3 of the album cuts even more than the singles - "Wild Life", "Kick", and "Calling All Nations" are just fucking awesome.