The mystery of what drove late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence to commit suicide two years ago may never be solved. But the titles to a number of songs slated to appear on the charismatic singer's posthumous solo album, due in September, offer insight into his troubled life.

Such tracks as "Let the People Talk," "Don't Save Me From Myself," "Slide Away" and "Put the Pieces Back Together" are eerily prescient and tell of Hutchence's life under the microscope, according to the co-producers of the album -- ex-Black Grape member Danny Saber and ex-Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill.

" 'Let the People Talk' was about how the media, particularly the tabloids, have this insatiable appetite for devouring the celebrity lifestyle," Gill said. "It's about [Michael's] life and how he was hounded and how [lover] Paula [Yates] was continually attacked in the press and how they felt those intrusions." Gill described the song as having an insistent, funky rhythm.

Hutchence was found hanging from a leather belt in his Sydney, Australia, hotel room Nov. 22, 1997. He was 37.

The album, tentatively titled Michael Hutchence, is slated for release Sept. 14 on V2 Records, according to publicist Roberta Moore.

Among the Hutchence compositions being considered for the album are 11 co-written by Gill, three co-written by Saber and a song titled "All I'm Saying," co-penned with Tim Simenon of Bomb the Bass.

Saber said he was brought into the project in late 1995 after Hutchence expressed admiration for his production work on Black Grape's 1995 debut, It's Great When You're Straight ... Yeah, a funk-influenced album that melded rock, rap and Jamaican rhythms.

"He said [the Black Grape album] was one of his favorite records," Saber said. "We went into the studio and worked on tracks for two months [in 1996] before he left to do some INXS stuff. It was really introspective stuff."

Saber said Hutchence told him and Gill that the song "She Flirts for England" was specifically written about Yates, who was a familiar figure in British gossip columns and tabloid newspapers and was the former wife of ex-Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof.

During his 20-year career with INXS, Hutchence was known for his matinee-idol good looks and such sultry, R&B-influenced pop-rock tunes as "Need You Tonight" and "Never Tear Us Apart" (RealAudio excerpt). The combination propelled the Australian band to multiplatinum success and international fame. In his solo work, Saber said Hutchence searched for the big beats and heavy guitars for which Saber is best known.

"Breathing" and "Possibilities" are two of the three songs Saber said he co-wrote with Hutchence that might make the album. The former was written only days before the singer's suicide and features a haunting chorus wherein Hutchence repeatedly intones the phrase "keep breathing."

According to Gill, nine of the tracks he co-wrote are being considered for the album. He added that the Gang of Four's signature sound, with walls of art-punk guitar distortion, was what attracted Hutchence to working with him.

The Gill-Hutchence songs include "Slide Away," "Standing on the Rooftop," "Flesh and Blood," "Let the People Talk," "She Flirts for England," "Don't Save Me From Myself," "Get on the Inside," "A Straight Line" and "Put the Pieces Back Together."

Gill described "Put the Pieces Back Together" as a song from their early sessions that is propelled by a dark, midtempo "sensuous" beat. "It starts off in this vibe, and as the verse progresses it takes on a darker tone both lyrically and musically," Gill said. "It has this mood shift in the middle from very sweet and tender to dark and paranoid."

During the album's recording, Hutchence suggested a number of tongue-in-cheek titles including "Dayglow Love Wand" and "Neo Junkie Philanderer," Gill said. The latter title was a nod to a quote reportedly attributed to Geldof in reference to Hutchence, after Hutchence had become romantically involved with Yates, with whom Geldof fathered three children. "[Michael] thought that was very funny," Gill said.

Although Gill described his work with Hutchence as nearly finished at the time of the singer's death, he said that neither the principals involved in the sessions nor those close to Hutchence were in the mood to complete the work following the suicide.

"Some of these songs mix what he was doing with INXS, the good things of that, and the more [experimental] things he wanted to do," said a source who worked on the album and who requested anonymity. "It's poppy and funky, but still very cool."

Gill described the music he recorded with Hutchence as "a bit darker than INXS, sort of like an interesting mix of grainy, gritty, almost industrial things with almost symphonic, orchestral sounds."

The solo album was originally slated for release in 1998 but was held up because of a battle for control of Hutchence's estate, ex-manager Martha Troup said last summer.

Before his death, Hutchence had occasionally released solo songs, including "Rooms for the Memory," from the soundtrack to his motion picture debut, "Dogs in Space"; and "The Passenger," from the film "Batman Forever." But he never released a full-length solo album.