INXS, "Original Sin" (Atco) INXS hasn't had the best of luck with singers.
Michael Hutchence famously led the Australian rock band through a series of hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but he was found dead in a Sydney hotel room in 1997. From there, INXS juggled a variety of fill-ins and then participated in a 2005 reality-show contest that ultimately rewarded J.D. Fortune the lead vocalist job -- and that, too, didn't quite work out.
So the concept of the band's new "Original Sin" makes sense: There's a different vocalist on every cut, including one featuring Fortune, as the group reinvents many of its old songs. And the guests are noteworthy: Rob Thomas, Ben Harper, Train's Pat Monahan, Tricky and Nikka Costa.
"Original Sin" doesn't succeed at celebrating a cohesive Hutchence-less INXS sound -- it's far too random with its revolving-door vocalists and stylistic jumble, plus there's a conspicuous absence of hits such as "What You Need," "Need You Tonight," "Devil Inside" and "Suicide Blonde."
However, this is a rewarding collision of nostalgia and modernism. Thomas teams up with Cuba's DJ Yalediys for a contemporary, Euro-dance-esque take on the track "Original Sin," Deborah De Corral puts a subtle country/gospel vibrancy in the uplifting groove of "New Sensation," Harper is at the microphone for a wildly grandiose "Never Tear Us Apart" and Monahan likewise plays it big on "Beautiful Girl."
CHUCK CAMPBELL, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
Low Anthem, "Smart Flesh" (Nonesuch)
Low Anthem isn't just a band name, it's a sonic philosophy. On "Smart Flesh," the splendid follow-up to the group's justly beloved 2008 release "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin," the Providence-spawned quartet soaks its spectral indie-folk in dreamy reverb, pedal steel, back-porch banjo, and high lonesome harmonica. Hints of forebears from Bob Dylan to Vic Chesnutt to the Band pop up along the way on the introspective, 11-song set.
