We’re delving into the early 90s, when I was heading into my teenage years and living at home, under the influence of both commercial radio and my parent’s taste in music.
Depending on how you feel about the band INXS and its music will colour how lucky you think I am that my Mum had several INXS albums on CD and tape. I remember the album cover to Welcome to Wherever You Are and its cute, almost quirky nature:
I also think the concept of being welcomed to wherever you may find yourself is a lovely one, and I personally feel we need to be more welcoming – to ourselves at whatever point we are at (mentally and physically) and to others who may be anywhere on the spectrum of struggling to thriving.
But I digress. “Not Enough Time” is one of my favourite INXS songs and the topic of this post, being the 3rd single from INXS’s 8th album. Gosh, I wonder what it would be like to have recorded 8 albums?
We begin our listening journey with a drum fill, before a warm bass line and sparse piano chords sit under what I’m tempted to say are some kind of synth drums with a tambourine. Hutchence’s vocal then melts into your ears like some kind of sexy, velvet butter. I can’t believe I wrote that, but he has an amazing vocal tone in this early verse, holding everything back, much like a lover taking his time. A slight contrast to what this song is about – the struggle to find enough time to be with the person you love and a promise to make time stop so you can just be together.
Not enough time
INXS – Not Enough Time
For all that I want for you
Not enough time for every kiss
And every touch and all the nights
I wanna be inside you
We get some low grungy sounding guitar on the first chorus with just a little flourish at the end before a second, short verse. The verses don’t really rhyme either – I always love people breaking rules of songwriting and being successful.
The second chorus brings in a descending piano riff which I really love its simple and is rounded off by Deni Hines singing the backing vocal ‘make time stop’. I really love that there’s a female voice in this song and Deni’s voice cuts through in such a good way. It also gives some balance – there are two people in this relationship and the woman is suffering as much as the man, almost pleading with the universe.
The third verse departs from the short structure, adding and revisting the first verse with more gorgeous backing vocals, before hitting the third chorus, where things get more intense. I find it really hard to pick out the instrumentation at this point as the mixing is just seamless. There’s a tonne of other stuff in there – strings, something that sounds like a synth bagpipe?!, more guitar, thuddy drums, samples that remind me of something that could belong in The Beatles song ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.
Sometimes though, you just want to let it wash over you and enjoy it.