INXS - Listen Like Thieves (1985)

Simply put, this is a fantastic, danceable, no-nonsense rock album. In my mind, Listen Like Thieves is the group's second-best album to Kick. Great for both open road and relaxing poolside. Recommended.

Rolling Stone, December 5, 1985, p. 58

The above review is pretty much in line with my opinion except for the "sags at the end of the first side" bit.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #11
• Billboard Pop CD: #13
• CashBox album: #33
• CashBox CD: #32
• Rolling Stone: #9

Tracks: The high points for me are What You Need, This Time, Kiss The Dirt, and the title track. Probably not coincidentally, those 4 tracks all made appearances on the Billboard Album Rock Chart while Listen Like Thieves and What You Need also placed on the Dance Chart. The only skippable track is the instrumental Three Sisters.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I'm not sure which of my friends owned this LP but someone must have because I recorded it on one side of a C-90 cassette with Wang Chung's To Live And Die In L.A. on the other (not sure where I got that album, either, but it was most likely from the same person).

In February 1986, while I was away for my sophomore year at college, my parents (now empty-nesters) moved to San Antonio. Like many people, they rented an apartment in their new city until more permanent living quarters could be acquired. So when I went to visit over spring break in March, it was an adventure: new living arrangement, new city, new people, etc. Even though the apartment complex was marketed to an older clientele, it did have a swimming pool (below). When the weather was nice during my visit, I hung out by the pool to get some "color."

Apartment swimming pool as it appeared earlier this week.
I remember it being cleaner 34 years ago, but it's oak pollen season.

What's the pool got to do with anything? For some reason, whenever I think of that dubbed cassette or either album that was on it, I am immediately transported back to this pool and March 1986 - the tape must have soundtrack all my visits there that week.

And you may ask yourself: "Mark, if you enjoy the music of INXS, why haven't more CD's appeared here on the blog?" That's a fair question which reminds of a completely unrelated story: I was in grad school in the mid-aughts with a man who had recently spent time serving in the Peace Corps teaching English in Uzbekistan. While there, he could (questionably) purchase CD-ROMs from local vendors that consisted of mp3 files of artists' entire catalogs. I admit to nothing, but, hypothetically, he might have be able to share such discs with me, theoretically including one of an Australian rock band.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Kick (1987)