1993's FULL MOON, DIRTY HEARTS was INXS's last album before a long, traumatic break ending only with 1997's ELEGANTLY WASTED, a fine return overshadowed by singer Michael Hutchence's suicide not long after its release. Although it seems as if it should foreshadow the difficult years ahead, if anything FULL MOON, DIRTY HEARTS is the most relaxed, breezy INXS album ever.
Their early, jittery, new wave sound was, by the time of 1984's THE SWING, refined into a tense but sexy swagger. But while this album features a few rattlesnake-shake dance-rockers early on, the overall mood turns surprisingly mellow by the appearance of the Elton John-like ballad "Kill the Pain," and the smoothly poppy "Cut Your Roses Down." By the weird, atmospheric closer, "Viking Juice," it's as if INXS have completely reinvented themselves.