Released on 25 September 1990 "X" was the seventh studio album by Australian rock band INXS, it was he follow-up to the massive seller Kick, but X scored hits with "Suicide Blonde" and "Disappear" (both Top 10 in the US). Two other singles from X were "Bitter Tears" and "By My Side" but they had less chart success. A fifth single, "The Stairs", was only issued in the Netherlands to coincide with the release of the Live Baby Live album.
X was the third consecutive INXS album produced by Chris Thomas. The title, the Roman numeral for "10", represents the band's tenth year since their debut album was released in 1980. X features a sample of blues-harp player Charlie Musselwhite on "Suicide Blonde", and Musselwhite himself playing on "Who Pays the Price" and "On My Way".
INXS gained great success with the release of their previous studio album, Kick. The multimillion-selling album received critical acclaim and proved to be the band's biggest selling album by far, having gone platinum multiple times. In 1987 and 1988, INXS toured heavily in support of Kick.
During 1989, the band took a break to work on side projects. Vocalist and primary songwriter Michael Hutchence collaborated with Ian 'Ollie' Olsen in the band Max Q, the two having previously worked together on Richard Lowenstein's film Dogs in Space. The remaining members of INXS also got involved in other musical projects, including songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Farriss, who joined singer-songwriter Jenny Morris in the studio to produce her second solo album, Shiver. Bass guitarist Gary Garry Beers collaborated with ARIA award-winning Sydney band Absent Friends during 1989. Beers first toured with the group, and later recorded tracks for their debut album, Here's Looking Up Your Address. Drummer Jon Farriss joined the recording sessions, contributing percussion on one track. Guitarist and saxophonist Kirk Pengilly, along with lead guitarist Tim Farriss, both paired up to help produce an album for local Sydney band, Crash Politics.
The band worked again with producer Chris Thomas at the new Rhinoceros studio in Sydney, Australia. Regarding the new studio, Thomas felt that it imposed a different feeling on the band's sound, which reflected in the album's material. In a 2002 interview, Thomas commented, "We worked at the new Rhinoceros studio, which was ridiculously enormous. To some degree, it forced isolation on everything, including the control room. To get a vibe on playback, you had to turn everything up really loud because the room was so big".
Most of the material for X was written by the songwriting duo of Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence with the exception of "Disappear", "Faith in Each Other" and "Deepest Red" (excluded from the album), which were written by Hutchence and Jon Farriss, whereas "By My Side" was a collaboration between Andrew and Kirk Pengilly. Some songs that appear on the album were in fact written years prior, including "Lately" and "Disappear" - the lyrics for "Lately" were originally written by Andrew during the recording sessions of the group's fifth studio album, Listen Like Thieves, while Hutchence and Jon wrote the lyrics for "Disappear" when they were living in Hong Kong in 1989.
An idea that Andrew suggested to Hutchence and the rest of the band was the sound of a Blues harp. After discovering Blues musician Charlie Musselwhite had been touring Australia, the band met with him and decided to use his harmonica playing talent on the album. For "Suicide Blonde", the band used samples of Musslewhite's playing rather than recording with the band in the studio; he does play traditional harmonica on "Who Pays the Price" and "On My Way". Like the band's two previous studio albums produced by Thomas, X features a slickness and polish in its production, a quality that was removed during production of subsequent albums. It was also the group's last studio album produced by Thomas.
Sticking to the formula that was built on Kick, Thomas urged primary songwriters Andrew Farriss and Hutchence to condense their song writing strengths on X. According to the liner notes on the album's 2002 remaster, Thomas stated, "Everything about INXS this time around was grandiose, and this was reflected in the material". He added, "The album got away from the funky stuff and was moving towards the epic on tracks like "Lately" and "The Stairs". The band focus their strengths, coming up not only with tough, state-of-the-art pop but with the casual confidence of a mature collective personality". Regarding the recorded material, Evans observed that "the record blends R&B; and rock as INXS always has done – but this time the grooves are more solid, the energy and moods less disparate".
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