New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ INXS Official Website) - INXS has announced they will release their new album titled Original Sin on January 11, 2011. The first musical project between INXS and original manager CM Murphy in over a decade, the band has recorded several of their signature hits re-imagined by some of the world's finest musicians including Ben Harper, Rob Thomas, Tricky, Nikka Costa and more. A partnership between Murphy's own Petrol Electric label and Rhino Entertainment, Original Sin will mark the first INXS album release on the revived Atco Records imprint, INXS's original label home, since the band's 1984 platinum selling album The Swing.
"We're thrilled to welcome INXS back to Atco. This album will reunite the band and their great music with their significant fanbase, and by way of some very special guests, to a new audience," said Kevin Gore, President & CEO of Rhino Entertainment.
An ambitious project two years in the making, Original Sin teams the band with musicians from around the globe, from superstars like Ben Harper, Train's Pat Monahan, Rob Thomas, and Nikka Costa to up and comer DJ Yaleidys of Cuba, to reinterpret and revitalize their own classics for a whole new generation. An eclectic mix of music including Thomas and Yaleidys' sultry take on "Original Sin" and trip-hop superstar Tricky's electrifying version of "Mediate" to Pat Monahans'emotional "Beautiful Girl" and French pop artist Loane's take on "Mystify" with John Mayer & Kirk Pengilly on guitar, INXS boldly embrace their past and future on one album.
Original Sin, the first new musical project between INXS and CM Murphy in over 15 years, is not just typical re-recordings of the band's original songs. INXS along with artists from all over the world are paying tribute to the songs themselves and to the songwriters Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence. "INXS's material, specifically INXS's songs, set the table for singers," said Ben Harper. "In my opinion, they're any singer's dream songs to sing. Covering, 'Never Tear Us Apart' is like covering 'Dock Of The Bay.'I'm not here to make grandiose overstatements; it's just a fact, that is one of the greatest soul songs ever written."
To have so many of their peers want to perform INXS songs is a testament to the songwriting and something that INXS keyboardist/guitarist and main songwriter Andrew Farriss is immensely proud of. "I'm truly flattered that we have so many artists interested in working with us reimaging these songs. In a sense, it's been re-energizing for us to look at ourselves differently in the context of being in 2010 rather than, you know, 30 years ago. I feel we're very much doing something that's now and significant." Agreed lead guitarist Tim Farriss, "Original Sin is just, for me, so exciting. I know certain people might sort of perceive it as why aren't you doing new material, but the fact of the matter is we're getting to play some of our favorite songs from our history and play them the way we want them to be heard today."
For drummer Jon Farriss, it's all about the music. "We wanted to celebrate the songs, they're such great songs," he says. "I think initially there was a mixed bag of emotions and feelings, which was probably a good thing because we realized how much the songs meant to us. But at the end of the day we started to realize that this is actually cathartic for us and it might be for everyone else as well."
"This is the most beautiful and heart wrenching musical project I have ever had the pleasure to be involved in," said CM Murphy, INXS creative director and global business strategist. "Every track is played with emotion and conviction by the wonderful musicians within INXS. Every artist who performed on this album did so with heartfelt connection to the songs and to Michael's original vocals as well as his soul and his love for music. I had the pleasure of working with Michael for 15 dynamic years and I know for a fact he would love every performer on this album. This is a very special album."
One of the most notable and successful rock bands of all time, INXS has sold over 35 million albums worldwide with the group's music remaining in constant radio rotation and in DJ sets nightly across the globe. To this day, the group's multi-platinum landmark albums Listen Like Thieves, Kick, and X are all widely regarded as music collection staples. Huge chart-topping hit singles including "What You Need," "Need You Tonight," "Devil Inside," "Never Tear Us Apart," "New Sensation" and "Suicide Blonde" have been featured in numerous films, advertising campaigns and video games, earning the band countless accolades and awards around the world, including several Grammy nominations, and is the driving force behind selling over 15 million albums in the U.S. alone. With a career spanning three decades, first as the Farriss Brothers, then as INXS, brothers Tim, Jon, and Andrew Farriss, along with Kirk Pengilly and Garry Gary Beers have created some of the most enduring music in rock.
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