Music / Kick

The twenty-first century is yesterday.

Kick is the sixth studio album by the Australian rock band INXS, released on October 12, 1987. It was their second collaboration with British producer Chris Thomas, the first being Listen Like Thieves in 1985, and was created to be an album where "every song was a possible single", according to guitarist/saxophonist Kirk Pengilly. It features the popular hits "Need You Tonight"/"Mediate", "New Sensation", "Devil Inside", "Mystify", and "Never Tear Us Apart". It was the second album by an Australian act to sell platinum in the United States, after AC/DC's Back in Black.

Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Guns in the Sky" (2:21)
2. "New Sensation" (3:39)
3. "Devil Inside" (5:14)
4. "Need You Tonight" (3:01)
5. "Mediate" (2:36)
6. "The Loved One" (3:37)

Side Two

1. "Wild Life" (3:10)
2. "Never Tear Us Apart" (3:05)
3. "Mystify" (3:17)
4. "Kick" (3:14)
5. "Calling All Nations" (3:02)
6. "Tiny Daggers" (3:29)

I, I was standing, you were there, two tropes collided...

• Album Title Drop:
  • In "Kick":
  Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked.
  • In "Devil Inside":
  Look at them go, look at them kick
  • In "Tiny Daggers":
  All you want to do is kick it in
• Call-and-Response Song: The "What do you feel? I'm lonely..." sections in "Need You Tonight".
• Face on the Cover: Three of the members of INXS, with Michael Hutchence's face half-appearing on the right side of the cover.
• Fading into the Next Song: "Need You Tonight" —> "Mediate".
• List Song: "Mediate" is basically a list of words that all rhyme with each other.
• Lyrical Cold Open: "Mystify".
• One-Word Title: "Mediate", "Mystify", and "Kick".
• Precision F-Strike: In "Guns In The Sky":
  Well, I'm sick of it. It's a load of shit.
• Protest Song: "Guns in the Sky".
• Record Producer: Chris Thomas.
• Shout-Out: The video for "Mediate" shouts out to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" as various members of the band flip cue cards in time to the lyrics of the song.
• Siamese Twin Songs: "Need You Tonight" and "Mediate", which were usually played together as one song (and one video). However, they have since been separated, and only the first is ever really heard on the radio anymore.
• Silly Love Songs: "Need You Tonight" and "Never Tear Us Apart".
• Stop and Go: "Need You Tonight", before the final chorus repeat.
• Title-Only Chorus: "Guns in the Sky".
• Title Track: "Kick".