X marks the apex of the band's distinctive brand of smart art disco. INXS has been nothing if not consistent since Listen Like Thieves, refining it's native punk - funk shake appeal with stark, Stonesy wallop and pithy soundbite tunes. X is more of the same - tart, tight dance music fortified with arena rock muscle - but heightened by a unifying emotional turbulence that reveals passion amid the professionalism. The outbursts are non specific, generalized reflections on desire and despair. With his reptilian vocal cool, though Michael Hutchence could make AAP wire reports sound like existentialist tracts, and he has no trouble making By My Side a bleak waltz in the manner of Kick's Never Tear Us Apart, sound like love's last gasp or transforming the skeletal stomp of Suicide Blonde into a hot blast of Doorsy lust. If INXS does not make great intellectual demands on it's audience, the dance floor vigor and commercial expertise evident on X nevertheless makes the mainstream a fun place to be.