X At Home With You LP reissue

Five years after their debut album Aspirations, 1985’s sophomore full-length At Home With You showcased a new depth for the seminal Australian group X. The record mixes commercial sensibilities (the melodious, brass-laden part of “T.V. Glue” is easily imagined as the background for a television advertisement) with unabashed punk ethos that can most readily be detected in frontman Steve Lucas’s expressive, sore-throated vocals. The album features ambitious and artful musicianship, and even an atmospheric ballad in the smoky “Don’t Cry No Tears,” while the band’s pub-rockin’ roots are still on display in tracks like “Degenerate Boy” (a re-working of one of their earlier songs) and the bouncy “She’s Gone.” While it positions its maturity up front, spending a bit of time at home with this newly-reissued LP will assure you that you’re still tuned into the same delightfully abrasive outfit that produced the classic posthumously-released 1977 X-Spurts sessions.

• Reviewer Jason Harding
• Label Sorcerer
• Issue MRR #512 • January 2026