In Brief

While more whole than many posthumous releases--collaborator Andy Gill says it was 90% done when Hutchence died two years ago--there’s still a sense of incompleteness. But then there often was to even Hutchence’s INXS best, and many of these songs offer surface pleasures in their finely crafted sheen (with guest appearances from Bono and Joe Strummer adding sonic allure), but reveal strained and failed efforts to show depth.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.

*

Hear the Music

* Excerpts from Eels’ “Daisies of the Galaxy” and other releases are available on the World Wide Web. Point your browser to: https://www.latimes.com/soundclips