Michael Hutchence
Michael Hutchence took a break from his day job as INXS's libidinous lead singer in 1995 to record his first solo album. He died a tabloid-exploited death in 1997, and a few years later,Black Grapeproducer Danny Saber and ex-Gang of Fourguitarist Andy Gill picked up the recordings and finished the songs. So what happens when these producers take it upon themselves to speak for the dead? They give this album the Black Grape treatment by dipping the ballads and funk-pop tracks in multiple layers of trippy, reverberating keyboards and wah-wah guitars. When the effects work, such as on  "Let Me Show You" and "Get On the Inside," Hutchence's personality is well matched to the soundscapes, igniting with the same fire Gill once lent to theRed Hot Chili Peppers. Other times, they cut too close to the tired bones of the chemically enhanced post-Manchester sound, robbing Hutchence of his intense sensuality. Obviously, the singer and his producers did not intend for this to be his musical epitaph, but such as it is, the album is too slick and commercially crass. It's hard to avoid foreshadowed readings of songs like "Don't Save Me from Myself" and "Possibilities," where he sings, "If you told me nothing's perfect / Hearts are broken, nothing's free / I could show you why it's worth it / That the way that it's meant to be." This second-rateAchtung, Babywill get more attention than it deserves because Hutchence is dead. It would have been a much more fitting tribute to the singer's legacy if the producers had allowed fans to simply hear the full power of his voice, unmasked by their own.--Beth Massa