“Listen Like Thieves” by INXS

"Listen Like Thieves" is the title track of INXS's fifth album, which came out in October 1985, and it went out as the record's fourth and final single the following year. Chris Thomas produced it, with Steve Churchyard engineering.

The song is all taut, strutting groove: Jon Farriss's drums and Garry Gary Beers's bass lock into a tight pulse, the guitars of Andrew Farriss, Tim Farriss and Kirk Pengilly scratch and flash around it, Andrew adds keyboards and Pengilly his saxophone, and Michael Hutchence prowls over the top with a sly, knowing sneer. It's the sound of an Australian band learning how to fill an arena without losing its funk. The trade press heard it too: Cash Box praised a "grooving, biting rock gem", and Billboard filed it under crisp arena rock.

The single climbed to number 46, backed by "Different World", a song that also turned up on the "Crocodile" Dundee soundtrack. The video was filmed at the Westgarth Theatre in Melbourne and drops the band into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Stephen Thomas Erlewine later counted the song, along with "Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain)", among the college rock staples of its day.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.