POLL: "Never Tear Us Apart" (INXS) vs. "Everybody Hurts" (R.E.M.)

because we are gracious & REM fans seem to need the toom

*room

BUT IF YOU WANNA KNOW

My best friend brought me back a bootleg cassette of Kick from her family holiday in Bali when I was in sixth grade (or maybe seventh?). we listened to it over and over

It still sounds exactly like my memory of 1987/88

Especially “New Sensation” — THAT sounds like summer to me

<3<3<3

and Never Tear Us Apart reminds me of these hardboiled sweets i loved at that time...i ate a whole bag in one sitting & i had a stomachache & i must have been listening to this song bcz i always think of those sweets now whenever I hear it

Kick is a baller album, probably my favorite in the INXS catalog

I bought the cassette shortly after hearing "Need You Tonight" and getting super obsessed with it, and then completely bugged out when I heard how good the rest of the album was.

I remember being really super into Guns in the Sky my first few listens, i liked the sound of it

My summer camp had a low-power radio station where campers took turn DJ’ing, and “Kick” was one of the main LPs we would grab off the shelf to play cuts from... pretty much everyone liked it, and almost every song was a hit.

Kick, Sign o the Times, Appetite for Destruction, Joshua Tree, Hysteria, Document, Lion and the Cobra, what a year

totally!

inxs was not big in pittsburgh-area high schools circa 1987 -- we'd heard some of it, of course, but it was neither g'n'r nor poison nor, for the edgy kids, the joshua tree

even 30 years later it all pales beside my need for more DJ fuckin P

otm

Just came across this precedential thread (pre–poll era?):

TS: INXS "Need You Tonight" Vs. Nine Inch Nails "Closer"

from memory INXS were already massive from The Swing & then Listen Like Thieves even moreso
older girls I knew in primary school had full size wall posters of Michael Hutchence in 84-85

Like, it was Duran Duran, Nik Kershaw & INXS

But Kick was when INXS’ manager started hitting US college radio super hard & that was how the album ended up being massive for them in the US.

poor colin hay

i’m sure he was on someone’s wall too

(citation needed)

nah serious though prob a dude’s wall
they kinda had a lot of guy fans iirc

Think Listen Like Thieves was the breakthrough album in the UK but then Kick took it to another level

in America too

"the one thing" --> "what you need" --> "need you tonight" ~ three killer singles, three albums in a row, was massive

You're missing something from The Swing, and I hope the something is "Original Sin."

Yeah, this outcome is undoubtedly one of those "only on ILM" things. No way on Earth or any other planet do INXS have a song that is better than R.E.M. at their worst, and 'Everybody Hurts' is far from R.E.M. at their worst.

*removes earrings*

He's right about the other planets thing, I looked into it.

turri cant

I like 'Never Tear Us Apart' and Kick plenty, but pick an '80s R.E.M. album at random and I can guarantee that Kick isn't even in the same league, and Kick really is INXS at their best.

Well just these two specific songs are being compared here.

'Disappear' > 'Disappear'

'We Are The Vegetables' > 'Man On The Moon'

"Way Of The World" > "Shiny Happy People"

Eheh this thread needed a new... kick !
Btw, listening to Kick reminded me that more than all the obvious hits, I really liked « Mediate ». It’s minimalist, barely a song, almost just a coda to « Need You Tonight » but I find it more moving than their flashy/in your face stuff (I find INXS a little too ott/caricatural in general...).

No way on Earth or any other planet do INXS have a song that is better than R.E.M. at their worst, and 'Everybody Hurts' is far from R.E.M. at their worst.

lol, I love 80s/90s REM and "Everybody Hurts" is like my least favorite song after "Shiny Happy People" -- Never Tear Us Apart is totally better.

Your choices of least favourite R.E.M. songs say a lot about you!

as does your inability to understand different viewpoints

Oh, I understand that people have different viewpoints, it's just that I often find them ridiculous and couldn't possibly agree with them.

My view on INXS is that their pre (and post) Kick work is inconsistent in terms of quality. Some great tracks, but a lot of dross. They got it right for the only time on Kick, but if we're gonna rank huge '80s bands I'd rank 'em well below R.E.M., U2 and even Simple Minds.

By the time INXS released Elegantly Wasted, they were a laughing stock pretty much. R.E.M. and U2 were still thriving. Simple Minds at least had a catalogue of stunning early albums that were ripe for rediscovery, yet INXS didn't have that, and nor did they have an album as good as New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84).

As an American, the esteem in which fucking Simple Minds, of all bands, are held by you foreigners is fucking baffling.

Listen to Reel to Real Cacophony, Empires and Dance or Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call and you'll understand why.

In 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 “Need You Tonight” -> “Mediate” was standard radio practice

it ruled

It was always kind of a letdown when MTV just played “Need...” without segueing into “Mediate.”

Your choices of least favourite R.E.M. songs say a lot about you!

it says we stopped paying attention after bill berry left, and rightly so

guys don't let this good thread go down the turdy-can

"NTUA" is probably INXS's 20th best song, off maybe their 2nd or 3rd best album! I much, much prefer REM overall, but I voted for "NTUA" as it seemed fairly clear that this poll wasn't about INXS vs REM per se.

it's almost like the title of the thread told you what was being specifically compared

Early Simple Minds rules

Also <3 DJP

"Everybody Hurts" is my least favorite song on AFTP. The lyric is underdeveloped.

As opposed to "Me, my thoughts are flowers strewn" etc., which are some of my favorite damn lyrics ever.

The lyric doesn't need to say more than it already does!