Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better late than never......., January 25, 2005
I bought this album ages ago, fell in love with it, then forgot about it for a few years! I recently went through my music collection, found it again, only to be disappointed that the disc was so scratched from being overplayed. I bought it again. By far the best INXS album. Yes, there were many 80's classics, but they were all spread out on different albums. This one has a unique flow, with a few classics:
Not Enough Time
Communication
Taste It
Baby Don't Cry
Beautiful Girl
Highy recommended. I have to agree with another reviewer who said this was "criminally overlooked."
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Adventurous Wherever, December 16, 2005
While INXS didn't rock as hard as on "X" or "Kick," "Welcome To Wherever You Are" was far more adventurous. The arrangements and instruments were a wide variation from anything the band had tried before. And since they were one of the biggest bands in the world at the time, "Welcome" was a serious risk. To my ears, it paid off.
The middle eastern flavor of "Questions" opened the disc on a unique note, and showed the band was not about to rest on their superstar laurels. There was also the ethereal quality to the ballad, "Beautiful Girl." "Welcome To Wherever You Are" spent less time kicking, or pounding, and more time on pulsing. Songs like "Wishing Well," "Communication" and "Taste It" beat along on solid foundations, dependent more on groove than force.
Not like rock was out of the picture. "Heaven Sent" was as close to an arena rock song as "Welcome" got, but "Baby Don't Cry" is just as big. The difference is in that "Baby Don't Cry" fills in its muscle with horns. INXS was obviously trying to break away from the box that their superstar status had framed them in, and they were doing their best to make an album that would set itself apart from "X" and "Kick."
Alas, the subtle charms of "Not Enough Time" and "Beautiful Girl" - and the full orchestra on the terrific "Men and Women" - were not enough to sustain the audience that looked upon INXS as a hard rock band and Michael Hutchence as an arena god. They avoided "Welcome To Wherever You Are" and jumped on board the Nirvana train, leaving INXS in a quandary. Unfortunately, it was one they never did fully recover from, as the follow-up "Full Moon Dirty Hearts" was a paint by numbers effort, one that spotlighted Michael's growing dissatisfaction with making music. "Welcome To Wherever You Are" is something of a lost album, in as much as it sounds like this was an album that INXS, flush with success and the ability to stretch out, really wanted to make.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Most Welcome INXS album ever..., September 13, 2005
Though I have to admit that I was never quite one for "reality" TV based-series--the most recent CBS hit show, "INXS Rock Star" has got me hooked. It inspired me so much that I finally had to dig through & dust off my INXS tape & CD collection. Ughhh...I hate to use the term "outdated," for it means to many of us another gray hair and a step further from the "good ole' days." I was working at a record store at the time I inherited this unclaimed disc from the promotional give-aways. I was probably indeed the only few twenty-something geeked fans to see the band finally release something since the "X" album. Wasn't too happy with "X"--it seemed to reinstate the band's sound from their previous success, "Kick," with a weaker performance.
Perhaps I was tired of the new "alternative" barf that was hitting the airwaves at the time with bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, but INXS' "Welcome to Wherever You Are" seemed like a treasure at the time. It was good to finally hear a band take back the form they helped to create. But even after listening to some of the band's earlier gems such as "Listen Like Thieves," & "The Swing," this album plays like there was no yesterday. It's hard to believe that this album scored the scarce amount of hits that it did. It features some Michael Hutchence' most bone-chilling takes, such as "Back on Line," "Communication," and the heavy-orchestrated "Baby Don't Cry."
This album is so energetic and full of life that I still cannot believe that the band would ever have to create a reality show merely a decade later to replace such a charismatic heart-throb idol such as Michael Hutchence. It is very rare that talents and looks come hand in hand.
Though I never could conceive that the band could ever create another glorious album as brilliant as "Kick" until hearing "Welcome to Wherever You Are" for the first time, it withstands the test of time--it is truly the last heart-wrenching performance of the band before Michael Hutchence took his final vow on "Elegantly Wasted" in 97. "Not Enough Time," "Heaven Sent," and "All Around" are the INXS' biggest hits that never were. Unfortunately, grunge hit the airwaves, while the alternative sounds of the past remained once again, alternative.
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by INXS 
