Wednesday, November 8, 2017

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #2: INXS - Don't Change





Before the reality TV show … before a rotating cast of lead singers… before international fame … before a bunch of hit singles that all sounded the same … before the sad & weird demise of their front man  … there was a new wave band from Oz named INXS.  They took a while to hit their stride, releasing two unremarkable sorta-synthpopy albums as the 80s dawned.  They finally found some success in 1982 with the single “The One Thing” from their third album, Shabooh Shoobah. But buried on that album was the final track on side 2 which was also their one and only masterpiece: “Don’t Change”.  From the opening synth notes to the guitars ringing in … the urgent singing … the quiet part in the middle… the outro with the the soaring backing vocals, this song never fails to send a chill up my spine and make me think of great times gone by … in the greatest decade.  If you love 80s synthpop and you love New Wave … Don’t Change A Thing !

-WAS

5 comments:

  1. Amazing song, downloaded it immediately and it went right into my personal playlist! Thanks Was!

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  2. And from the grand high exalted New Wave poobah Marc D ... there is no higher compliment than that!

    This one would probably make my Top 10.... Enjoy!

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    1. I've always wanted to be a poobah!

      "Don't Change" has displaced "Suicide Blonde" as my favorite INXS song.

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  3. This has always been on of my favorite INXS songs, though I'd still have to put "Original Sin" and "Disappear" ahead of it.

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    1. I got sick of "Disappear" for some reason. "Original Sin" is good. Others I like are "Listen Like Thieves", "Devil Inside", "Need You Tonight", "Beautiful Girl", "Guns In The Sky", "New Sensation", "Never Tear Us Apart", the aforementioned "Suicide Blonde", and, from the J.D. Fortune days, "Devil's Party" and "Pretty Vegas".

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