# Full Moon, Dirty Hearts

Full Moon, Dirty Hearts is the ninth studio album by Australian rock band INXS. It was released on 2 November 1993, through East West Records in Australia, in the United Kingdom by Phonogram's Mercury Records label, 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; the studio sat atop a steep cliff, overlooking the Bay of Naples. Guitarist and saxophonist Kirk Pengilly recalls, "It was like a five-star Alcatraz". Hutchence and Opitz shared a villa on the island with Hutchence living upstairs and Opitz living downstairs.
Hutchence's condition raised concerns throughout the recording process. At first he became distraught about being isolated on the island. On the first night, Opitz was awakened at four a.m. to the sound of furniture being smashed upstairs by Hutchence. During one session, Hutchence threatened to stab bassist Gary Beers with a knife after the two had a dispute. 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!" In the band's 2005 official autobiography – INXS: Story to Story, Pengilly recalls, "Michael had very violent moments. He threw his microphone stand around inside the studio, and he threw violent tantrums all the time". The group took a one-month break for the Christmas period, allowing Hutchence time to recover from his condition and the rest of the band time to spend with their families. Before breaking for the Christmas holidays, the band got half of the album completed. Hutchence returned to his estate in France, later joining Farriss in London to write the last remaining songs for the album.
At the start of the New Year, Hutchence and Farriss returned to the Isle of Capri one week earlier along with Opitz and engineer Niven Garland. Upon returning to the sessions in Capri, Hutchence's behaviour had progressively returned to normal. While riding the hour and a half journey on the ferry from Naples to Capri, Hutchence began writing the lyrics for the album's title track. Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders would perform the song along with Hutchence. As the remaining members of INXS were preparing to return to the island, Hutchence, Farriss, Opitz and Garland managed to get six more tracks for the album finished including, "Days of Rust", "Please (You Got That...)", "Freedom Deep", "Kill the Pain", "Viking Juice" and the title track. Production of the album came to an end in late February 1993 with everyone spending the final night capturing ideas and doing last minute touch ups on some of the tracks. The following morning, INXS caught the morning ferry back to Naples to prepare for their journey to Paris to carry out additional work on the album. Opitz took the recording tapes to Los Angeles where he mixed them with mixing engineer Bob Clearmountain. Clearmountain previously engineered and mixed the band's best selling album, Kick.
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...)". Charles passed on "Make Your Peace" because he thought the key was too high for his voice but he agreed to perform vocals on "Please (You Got That...)". The duet between Hutchence and Charles took place at Charles’ own recording studio in Los Angeles. Charles agreed to appear in the song's music video and would also perform the song live with INXS (a few days before the album's release) on the Late Show with David Letterman. The mixing of the album was completed by Opitz in July back on Capri while the band were touring some of the new songs on their Get Out of the House tour throughout the spring and summer.

## Reception

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| All Music Guide to Rock | |
| Calgary Herald | B+ |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| The Cincinnati Post | |
| Leader-Telegram | |
| MusicHound Rock | 4/5 |
| Philadelphia Daily News | |
| Q | |
| (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| The Sydney Morning Herald | |
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.
Christian Wright rated the album three stars in his review for Rolling Stone. Although he criticised INXS for sounding like other artists on some of the album's songs, he did praise the album's third single, "Time". He wrote, "Thankfully, on 'Time', with its guitar and vocal counterpoint, the band sounds like itself, and Hutchence resumes the instinctive swagger that made him a video star." 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".
Q magazine wrote - 4 stars - Excellent'...[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...'
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."
Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune wrote in his review that, "like the Stones at their peak, INXS takes bits of what's hot – grunge, techno, hip-hop – and makes it their own. The loose mix of dirty guitars and warped ambiance, plus winning cameos by Ray Charles and Chrissie Hynde, makes "Full Moon, Dirty Hearts" the equal of anything INXS has ever released." Philadelphia Daily News's 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."

### 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. The album did perform better outside the States having charted at number 3 in the United Kingdom and number 4 in Australia, earning Gold certifications in both countries.

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence, except where noted

## Personnel

Personnel as listed in the album's liner notes are:
INXS
* Michael Hutchence – vocals
* Andrew Farriss – keyboards, guitars
* Tim Farriss – guitars
* Kirk Pengilly – guitars, saxophone, vocals
* Garry Gary Beers – bass, vocals
* Jon Farriss – drums, percussion, vocals
Additional musicians
* John Kirk – trumpet on "I'm Only Looking"
* Ray Charles – vocals on "Please (You Got That...)"
* Chrissie Hynde – vocals on "Full Moon, Dirty Hearts"
Production
* Mark Opitz – producer, mixing (2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12)
* INXS – producers, front cover design
* Chris Kimsey – vocal producer (7)
* Bob Clearmountain – mixing (1, 3, 9, 10)
* Niven Garland – engineer, mixing (2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12)
* Brian Eno – mixing (5)
* Max Carola – assistant engineer
* Ben Fenner – assistant engineer
* Alex Firla – assistant engineer
* Bruce Keen – assistant engineer
* Pete Lewis – assistant engineer
* John Mansey – assistant engineer
* Melissa Van Twest – assistant engineer
* Randy Wine – assistant engineer
* Kevin Metcalfe – mastering engineer
* Michael Nash – design
* Enrique Badulescu – front cover photography
* Garry Beers – inside photography
* Leslie Farriss – inside photography
* Katerina Jebb – inside photography
Studios
* Additional recording and mixing at Studio Guillaume Tell (Suresnes, France); Olympic Studios and Westside Studios (London, UK); A&M Studios (Hollywood, California, US).
* Mastered at The Town House (London, UK).