Full Moon, Dirty Hearts is the ninth studio album by Australian rock band INXS. It was released on 2 November 1993, and by Atlantic Records in the United States. The album drew mixed reviews, and sold less than previous works. The straight-ahead rock sound of the album was compared to the Rolling Stones by several reviewers, especially with reference to their 1972 album Exile on Main St., seen as a return to basics. Full Moon, Dirty Hearts was followed by the Dirty Honeymoon world tour of 1993–1994.
"Please (You Got That ...)" featured vocals by Ray Charles and was released as a single. The title track featured vocals by the Pretenders lead singer, Chrissie Hynde.
The band's manager, Chris Murphy, arranged to shoot videos for every song on the album. Twelve videos were shot on a small budget by twelve up-and-coming Australian directors.
The Japanese edition of the album included a cover of Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild", which was specially recorded for the April 1993 launch of Virgin Radio in the UK.
Background
As INXS were finishing their previous studio album Welcome to Wherever You Are, they decided not to tour; instead the group recorded a follow-up album, then toured for both albums.
Following the release of Welcome to Wherever You Are, the band spent the next few months promoting the album across various countries in Europe, including the UK, France and Sweden. While promoting the album in Europe, vocalist Michael Hutchence visited then-girlfriend Helena Christensen in her home city of Copenhagen in Denmark. The couple were returning home on their bikes one night when Hutchence, who was standing in an alley with his bike, was punched from behind by a taxi driver and fell to the ground, hitting his head on the curb. He sustained a fractured skull and suffered the loss of his senses of smell and taste, and spent two weeks recovering in a Copenhagen hospital. In the unofficial biography Michael Hutchence: A Tragic Rock & Roll Story, Australian author Vince Lovegrove wrote, "It had a very strange effect on Michael. The injury also caused the singer to act erratically, abusively and to suffer insomnia". These conditions had an impact on the production of Full Moon, Dirty Hearts.
Recording and production
The album was written soon after the release and promotion of the band's previous album, Welcome to Wherever You Are, at the end of November 1992. The album was recorded and produced at Capri Studio on the Isle of Capri in Italy, and completed in February 1993. The Capri Studio had just re-opened during the recording of Welcome to Wherever You Are and after spotting an ad for it in a trade magazine, Hutchence and producer Mark Opitz insisted that the band should record their next record there. Rehearsals for Full Moon, Dirty Hearts took place at Hutchence's villa in the south of France in October 1992 where the group were often distracted by other celebrities and supermodels who Hutchence regularly invited. The group decided to set off to the Isle of Capri early, arriving on the island one month after rehearsals. The journey was long and tiring for all members of the band as it took them almost two days of travelling to get there. Once on the island, each member of the band received their own villa, with the studio itself located close by;
thumb|right|Full Moon, Dirty Hearts was recorded on the Isle of Capri.
Hutchence's condition raised concerns throughout the recording process. At first he became distraught about being isolated on the island. Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Farriss recalls another incident where Hutchence shoved his microphone straight through the strings of an acoustic guitar while shouting, "We need more aggression on this track!" Before breaking for the Christmas holidays, the band got half of the album completed. Upon returning to the sessions in Capri, Hutchence's behaviour had progressively returned to normal.
While recording overdubs at a studio in Paris, Hutchence and Farriss discovered that Ray Charles was recording at the same studio. The pair asked his engineer if Charles would be interested in recording vocals on two tracks for the album, "Make Your Peace" and "Please (You Got That...)". The mixing of the album was completed by Opitz in July back on Capri The album is raw and stripped-down with a noisy, rootsy sound, and largely comprises visceral rock songs. Greg Kot considered the album "bolder" than its predecessor, saying that its "loose mix of dirty guitars and warped ambiance" borrows elements of hip hop, techno and grunge. According to critic J.D. Considine, the group's rhythmic backbone had shifted from classic funk to "hip hop-inflected grooves", albeit with a stronger soul element in the songs. Some compared the album to U2, with Voxs Andrew Mueller opining that the album sounds like "an attempt to bring off the sort of reinvention and revival that U2 had accomplished with Achtung Baby." Ira Robbins of Trouser Press also likened the "panels of thick mechanical guitar distortion, fuzzed bass and weird-snare veneer" on "The Gift", "Days of Rust", "Time" and "Viking Juice (The End of Rock & Roll)" to the band. with "Time" also evoking the latter band. whose persistent industrial bassline and distorted guitars lend it an hypnotic quality. "Make Your Peace" and "I'm Only Looking" feature funk rock repetition. with a sound that has also been compared to the Rolling Stones. Spoken vocals also drive the psychedelic closing song, "Viking Juice (The End of Rock & Roll)".
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Full Moon, Dirty Hearts received mixed reviews on its release. Andy Gill of The Independent said the album was "a return to rock music, pure and simple, with hard drums and big, dirty guitars". In his review for the 2002 book All Music Guide to Rock, Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album one star out of five and said, "Full Moon, Dirty Hearts sounds tired and as calculated as X." He concluded his review by stating, "INXS sounds energetic throughout the album, but the experimentation is poorly executed and there is a serious lack of strong songs and singles, apart from two duets: 'Please (You Got That ...)' with Ray Charles and the title track, which features Chrissie Hynde." Erlewine's one-star review was ported from the book to the AllMusic website in 2002, but after March 2024 the website changed the rating to two stars.
Billboard (magazine) Hailed, the Aussie rock giants again for making bold inroads into new sonic terrain. Initiating, Among the curve balls here are duets with Ray Charles and Chrissie Hyde - on "Please (You Got That...)" and title cut, respectively - and a track mixed by Brian Eno that bears his stamp, On the more conventional side, "The Gift," which is apt to appeal to Inxs' album rock and modern rock supporters." Entertainment Weekly "Wrote"-...FULL MOON DIRTY HEARTS is full of killer hooks. There's something in nearly every song that Jumps out at you, propulsive drum attacks, Jabbing bass lines, and, above all, flashes of lightning - sharp melody..." Rating: B."
Music Week gave the album four out of five stars, and described the rock-heavy style as the band taking "a step back" from their "flirtations with funk and pop sensibilities". The Accrington Observer, said "Thrilled To Excess" Writing a positive review of the Album. With no punches pulled it roars in with Days of Rust, a strong and heavy song which is vaguely reminiscent of Big Country, they wrote, this is the start of a rollercoaster ride of seriously sexy guitars, thumping drums and gut-wrenching bass lines designed purely to thrill."
Andrew Smith, writing for The Journal (Newcastle upon Tyne newspaper) was favorable in his review, praising the band for managing to still sound fresh and creative as well as highly professional. Yet he found, Inxs are at their best playing good rock 'n' roll and this release has plenty of it." Ian Gittins of Melody Maker Opined that "Inxs are exactly sly enough to surprise us", he advised. "Inxs are too thick-wristed to be ethereal, but Full Moon... has its joys. I'm only looking is oddly lovely, the lads dropping the blues-beat for a fluent funkstep which even slinks into fetching freeform jazz. Yowsa!" While ending his review more mixed, signaling even though there is no startling self-reinvention like U2, and the band sounding like they've been playing together for 17 years, he appreciated a few of the albums tracks. Vlado Forgac of The Morning Star (British Columbia newspaper) mentions, This Australian sextet is now showing remarkable signs of growth and maturity while refusing to remain dormant. He called the album a winner."
Giving the album four stars out of five, Q hailed it as excellent", writing: "[Full Moon is] tougher - sounding and more aggressive than anything previously bearing [INXS] name...it's still got weird corners and makes the best job yet of capturing the vitality of INXS' live performance...". While noting the competent playing and expensive production, Selects Clark Collis complained that the record lacks decent songs, writing that "the band succeed in promoting an atmosphere of been there, done that". In his NME review, Paul Moody opined that the band attempts to be "hip", as evident by the 'manful' content, the monochrome sleeve photos and handwritten track listing. However, Moody believed that, "desperate as INXS are to create a mood of U2-like Euro-chic, they are unable to write a decent lyric or a song that resists the temptation to be overblown", adding that even Brian Eno failed to contribute the desired "weirdness" to "I'm Only Looking".
Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Tony Parsons opined that this was the band's "most exciting album for years", comparing it to the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. as both albums represent "the sound of a band getting back to the greasy basics". Parsons concludes that "Full Moon, Dirty Hearts is INXS at their stomping best."
Music critic J. D. Considine of The Baltimore Sun said in his review. "There's plenty of edge to the material here, from the dense, dark throb of 'The Gift' to the grungy, Stones-like snarl of 'The Messenger, ' but that hardly takes away from the music's melodic appeal." Considine continued, "it's the bands freshest sounding effort in ages."
Philadelphia Daily News Chuck Arnold compared INXS to the Rolling Stones, writing that on "lively, live-sounding cuts like 'Days of Rust,' 'The Gift' and 'The Messenger,' they tear it up like a rough-and-rowdy bar band getting paid with all the beer they can drink." Arnold said that the album shows "that Hutchence still has, unequivocally, one of the best voices in modern rock." Jim Farber of the New York Daily News suggested that "Full Moon, Dirty Hearts, was the bands most charged work since "Kick" in 1987. He noted nine of the Album's 12 cuts feature dance-worthy grooves, and nearly all the choruses prove catchy."
Commercial performance
Full Moon, Dirty Hearts entered the Billboard Top 200 in November 1993. It peaked at number 53 and lasted only five weeks in the charts.
Track listing
Personnel
Personnel as listed in the album's liner notes are: