Welcome to Wherever You Are

Following the release of their seventh studio album, X, INXS staged a worldwide concert tour titled the X-Factor Tour. The ten-month tour began in October 1990 and consisted of four legs with a total of 121 shows. The 1990–91 tour proved successful, attracting 1.2 million fans across four continents. To coincide with the successful tour, INXS released their first live album, Live Baby Live, a few months after the tour had finished. Live Baby Live features 15 live tracks taken from various shows during the band's Summer XS leg of the tour. Although the album was commercially successful, peaking in the top 10 on both the Australian and UK Albums Chart, as well as earning platinum status in the United States, some critics criticised the album for sounding too studio-like. The members of INXS began preparations for their eighth studio album towards the end of the X tour. ==Recording and production==

In November 1991, INXS entered Rhinoceros studios in Sydney to begin work on their eighth studio album. Opitz and Hutchence also used heavy distortion on the vocals, an experience that Hutchence enjoyed. The band recorded both tracks live in the studio, with the 60-piece orchestra being conducted by Colin Piper and engineered by Neil Sandbach. Tim Farriss was absent during most of the album's production because he was suffering from exostosis. Pengilly had to play most of his material. Bassist Garry Gary Beers and his then-wife, Jodie, were awaiting the birth of their second child. The event was held to help raise money for the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Centre and AIDS Patient Services and Research, at St Vincent's Hospital. The band included two more songs from the new album on their set list: "Taste It" and "All Around". Upon returning to the studio to finish the rest of the album, the band members decided not to tour in support for Welcome to Wherever You Are; instead they came up with the idea of doing a follow-up album, and then touring in support of both. Opitz went on to produce the follow-up, Full Moon, Dirty Hearts, a year later, continuing the band's experimentation with their musical style. Welcome to Wherever You Are is the first studio album to have all members of INXS share production credits. ==Composition==

As a result of INXS' self-reinvention and intention to explore new musical directions, Welcome to Wherever You Are is the band's most experimental album, as apparent in the use of the 60-piece orchestra, instances of Middle Eastern instrumentation, "layers of distortion", female backing vocals and influences from baggy music ("Taste It") and melancholic songs from the Velvet Underground ("Beautiful Girl"). while writer Manny Grillo says it "blends their usual funky dance rock with more alternative rock and world music textures", noting that the orchestra are employed both for anthemic ("Baby Don't Cry") and more serious ("Men and Women") effect. The record has also been called "dance-influenced". Commenting on the band's new direction, Farriss stated: "In the past we've been a little too conscious of our song style, and we dropped that this time round." The album's eclectic, experimental direction is immediately apparent with the ethnic opening track, "Questions". it has been described as "a mystical Indian drone, peppered with exotic tabla rhythms and underpinned by synths and a drum machine". According to AllMusic: "From the start of the album, it's clear that INXS are out to confuse the standard perceptions of the band; the first instrument on the album is an Eastern-flavored horn." By contrast, "Heaven Sent" is a heavy, Iggy Pop-esque garage rock song, with Hutchence's snarling vocals distorted to sound as though they were sung through a megaphone. "Communication" is a stadium-friendly "tech satire", with lyrics referring to satellite dishes and "communication disinformation". It uses the studio as an instrument and features catchy guitar work. The baggy-adjacent "Taste It" is a groove-based track with an ambient, woolly drum sound. "Not Enough Time" features a pulsating soul groove, with Sinclair comparing Hutchence's vocals to David Bowie, while "All Around" is a rock song reminiscent of the Beatles. The orchestrations on the anthemic, symphonic "Baby Don't Cry" are comparable to 1960s rock and soul music. Rather than using the orchestra for background shading, as is typical of orchestras on rock songs, INXS and Opitz "push it to the front of the mix, forcing the rock instruments to compete," resulting in a dense arrangement. The melancholic "Beautiful Girl" was inspired by the Velvet Underground and features a delicate melody. "Wishing Well" features a sinuous, bluesy bass line and Hammond organ parts, while "Back On Line" has been described as "an unlikely trip to the spacy land of psychedelia-tinged R&B." The record closes with "Men and Women", a bleak, largely beatless song featuring a murky sound comprising harsh guitar chugs, kettle drums and symphonic orchestration. ==Packaging==

Previous designs for INXS releases, including Kick and X, were created by visual artist Nick Egan, and included strong shots of the band, but for the release of Welcome to Wherever You Are, INXS wanted to go for a more artistic and creative theme. A technique known as "situation photography" was used to shoot random pictures for the album's cover art, as well as the album's five singles. Atlantic Records also released a limited edition of the album on deluxe digipak. The vinyl edition featured a black & white picture of a Sea Cadet while the cassette cover features a group of boy scouts from 9th/10th Dublin Aughrim Street Scouts performing a human pyramid. The new designs were a departure from the group's previous work with Egan. With INXS missing from the artwork and lack of promotion from the record label, some fans simply wouldn't recognise the new album in record stores. A few months after the album's release, Atlantic re-released the CD edition in Australia with new artwork, this time featuring INXS. The re-printed artwork shows the band walking the desert dressed in suits. The shot was an outtake taken from the photo sessions that were included in the album sleeve. Lyrics from all twelve songs were printed in the liner notes. ==Critical reception==

The album was generally positively received by the critics and fans, particularly in Europe and the UK, where it went to the top of Albums Chart in the UK. Hutchence commented that the album received the best critical reaction for any of the band's work. The Independent and Q magazine also included the album in their top 10 albums of the year of 1992. Andy Gill from The Independent said "It's their best record by some distance, bristling with pop hooks applied in odd directions." while David Sinclair of Q opined that INXS' "mild experimentation" and "more enquiring approach to their music" resulted in "a far more engaging and heartfelt collection than anything the group has put out in recent memory." Cohen wrote that the 60-piece orchestra on two unalike songs "helps make Welcome the most interesting outing yet from a band nearing its 15th year." However, Vic Garbarini, for Rolling Stone, was less positive and felt "this is music that attracts but hasn't the gravity or resonance to hold your attention ... Hutchence seems dissociated from his material, dispassionately competent ... the wealth of musical gifts on the album makes the one-dimensional delivery stand out all the more dramatically". Dave Morrison of Select complained that the album was not a full U2-style reinvention, but countered that INXS were better at "stadium stuff" than any other band. Chicago Tribune felt the record was more ambitious than most INXS albums, due to its "Middle Eastern accents, full-blown orchestral pieces and even some distorted Hutchence vocals", but conceded that it largely comprised the "funky bass lines, scratchy rhythm guitars, wailing sax and atmospheric keyboards" that typified the band's sound. Dave Ferman of Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote that INXS' strength remained in mixing funk, abrasive rock, and pop structures, but believed the "inventive, varied" CD balances songs like those with new touches, both in its instrumentation and drum sounds, and sharp songwriting. Retrospectively, Ira Robbins of Trouser Press named it an "intriguingly good" departure for the band, adding "the results are uneven but sometimes genuinely rewarding." Welcome To Wherever You Are was listed at #20 on Radio X (United Kingdom)'s 25 "Greatest" Indie Albums of 1992. Commercial performance At the time of its release, Welcome to Wherever You Are entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, Five years later, the album was certified platinum on 16 December 1997 for sales of one million copies alone in the United States. In Canada, Welcome to Wherever You Are reached number ten on the RPM Albums Chart It received a gold accreditation by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) on 26 March 1993 for shipments of 50,000 units. ==Legacy==

Although INXS pursued a noisier, more rootsy sound for their next record, Full Moon, Dirty Hearts, the experimental nature of Welcome to Wherever You Are was a creative turning point for Hutchence, who then began an abandoned solo project with punk funk guitarist Andy Gill and Black Grape producer Danny Saber. ==Track listing==

Personnel as listed in the album's liner notes are: INXS • Michael Hutchence – vocals • Andrew Farriss – keyboards, guitars, orchestral arrangements (7, 12) • Tim Farriss – guitars • Kirk Pengilly – guitars, saxophone, vocals • Garry Gary Beers – bass, vocals • Jon Farriss – drums, percussion, vocals Additional musicians • Sunil De Silva – percussion (5) • Australian Concert Orchestra – orchestra (7, 12) • Mick Kenny – orchestral arrangements (7, 12) • Colin Piper – conductor (7, 12) • Phillip Hartl – concertmaster (7, 12) • Deni Hines – backing vocals (5, 11) Production • Mark Opitz – producer • INXS – producers • Bob Clearmountain – mixing at A&M Studios (Hollywood, California) • Niven Garland – engineer • Melissa Van Twest – assistant engineer • Neil Sandbach – orchestral engineer (7, 12) • Leon Zervos – mastering at Studios 301 (Sydney, Australia) • Steve Pyke – cover photography • Peggy Sirota – band photography • Michael Nash Assoc. – design ==Charts and certifications==

Charts Certifications and sales ==References==