For October, the Mental Jukebox is dialing it way back to the eighties and going deep. Deep cuts have always been an important element of music listening to me because they’re often the songs that resonate with me most. Deep cuts are usually the ones that the true fans appreciate most. I like my singles and hits, but I love my deep cuts.
Growing up as a music fan, a whole slew of terminology entered my consciousness that doesn’t typically make its way into everyday conversations. Unless I’m talking to people just like me. One such phrase is album-oriented rock and its numerous variations, including album rock and album track. For the unconverted, these tracks thrive in being part of a greater collection of songs and often are best heard when played in their original sequence. There are arguably fewer examples as spot on as INXS’ “Mediate”.
“Mediate” holds the #5 position on Kick, a massive breakthrough album for the Aussie band. On an album stuffed with huge, infectious chart-topping singles, “Mediate” was a role track, not a star track. It cleansed the palette so to speak, coming off the massive three-song run of “New Sensation”, “Devil Inside” and “Need You Tonight”. In fact, it bleeds out of “Need You Tonight” with a continuous drumbeat. It’s a concept song – a poem that rhymes for about two and a half minutes before we get into the old bluesy rock track, “The Loved One.”
“Deliberate, fascinate, Deviate, reinstate.”