Listen Like Thieves (40th Anniversary Edition LP)

The dawn of 1985 found INXS already five albums into a single-minded evolution that began in the pubs of Australia and would blossom in the stadiums of the world. Three brothers and three mates with ample helpings of real life under their belts, they lived by a particular maxim. Whatever’s clever, they always said, as a go-with-the-flow reminder to treat good times and bad with the same equanimity. And things were about to get very clever indeed.

This lavish remounting of Listen Like Thieves is testament to a band whose resolute focus on achieving international renown was rewarded that year with serious sales, a heavyweight hit single and their consecration as flagbearers of the MTV generation. Forty years on, this staging post album – their first in a fruitful relationship with hallowed producer Chris Thomas – is there to be savoured by original fans and new admirers alike.

In a brand-new stereo mix by INXS executive music producer Giles Martin and Paul Hicks, the album radiates a raw energy that goes far beyond mere remastering. Martin and Hicks went back to the original masters and built the mix from the ground up to put us in the studio with the band. It creates new layers of sonic depth and an entirely fresh dimension, even for listeners who have been living with the album since the day it emerged.

Martin has also curated a new trove of session sketches that grows into a compelling chronicle of long-loved music in development, a canvas of sounds and sketches as they get ready to explode into full bloom. Then there’s the further bonus of the live recording the BBC forgot they had: the Royal Albert Hall show of June 1986 that captures a new frontier in the band’s British conquest, bringing a generous selection of these songs to life alongside favourites from an already expansive catalogue.

TRACK LIST
1. What You Need
2. Listen Like Thieves
3. Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)
4. Shine Like It Does
5. Good + Bad Times
6. Biting Bullets
7. This Time
8. Three Sisters
9. Same Direction
10. One X One
11. Red Red Sun