What a Life! (album)

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What a Life!
What a Life! cover
Studio album by Divinyls
Released 1985
Recorded 1984, 1985
Genre Rock, New Wave
Length 40:00
Label Chrysalis Records
Producer Mike Chapman, Gary Langan, Mark Opitz
Professional reviews
Divinyls chronology
Desperate
(1983)		 What a Life!
(1985)		 Temperamental
(1988)

What a Life! is the second studio album by Australian band Divinyls, released in 1985 (see 1985 in music) by Chrysalis Records. The album is a genre of rock and new wave songs — written by Divinyls members Christina Amphlett and Mark McEntee.

Contents

[edit] History

After touring and promoting in the United States, Divinyls came back to Australia to begin the followup to Desperate, with Mark Opitz producing again. They produced three songs including "Don't You Go Walking" and "Sleeping Beauty" but Amphlett and McEntee were not satisfied so they returned to the road, replacing drummer Richard Harvey with J.J. Harris, and wrote more songs. A year later they again tried recording, this time with the producer Gary Langan who was the founding member of the band Art of Noise. He brought a sophisticated, high-tech edge to Divinyls' sound, but a full album failed to get done. Recording stopped once more.

Eventually, Amphlett and McEntee made a journey to Los Angeles, where they asked pop producer Mike Chapman to come back with them to Australia and finish their second album. Chapman only ended up producing two songs: "Pleasure and Pain" (who he also co-wrote with Holly Knight) and "Sleeping Beauty". The album failed to impress and the group disbanded. Amphlett and McEntee relocated to Los Angeles to concentrate on songwriting.

[edit] Reception

All Music Guide reviewed the album saying that many of the album tracks are hardly memorable and the bands best strengths lie both in Christina Amphlett's unique vocal delivery, and guitarist Mark McEntee's bottom-heavy, grungy, guitar work, also disapproving their songwriting. The review also stated that it is a solid album for fans of the band, but there are better places to start for casual listeners. Even though the reviews were bad, the album was one of their most successful peaking at number four in Australia and breaking into the U.S. for the first time at number ninety-one.

The singles released from What a Life! had a fair share of success, all six songs released broke into the top one hundred in Australia and also one breaking into the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. "Casual Encounter" was released as the albums first single, not being so successful only peaking at number ninety-one in Australia. "Good Die Young" was released as the second single and had much more success peaking at number thirty-two in Australia. "In My Life" was the fourth song released and it peaked at number forty-seven in Australia. The fourth song released "Pleasure and Pain", became the most successful song off the album breaking into the top twenty in Australia and hit number seventy-six in the U.S. "Sleeping Beauty" was the fifth song released and did not seek that much success peaking at number fifty in Australia. The last song released was "Heart Telegraph" which only peaked at number ninety.

[edit] Track listing (Original Australian Release)

  1. "Pleasure and Pain" (Michael Chapman, Holly Knight) - 3:55
  2. "Sleeping Beauty" (Amphlett, McEntee) - 3:38
  3. "Good Die Young" (Christina Amphlett, McEntee) - 3:36
  4. "Guillotine Day" (Bjarne Ohlin) - 3:08
  5. "Talk Like the Rain" - 3:07
  6. "Heart Telegraph" (Amphlett, McEntee) - 4:48
  7. "Old Radios" 4:06
  8. "In My Life" (Amphlett, McEntee) - 3:43
  9. "Para-Dice" - 3:53
  10. "What A Life" - 4:03
  11. "Dear Diary" (Ohlin) - 4:25

[edit] Track listing (U.S. Release)

  1. "Pleasure and Pain" (Michael Chapman, Holly Knight) - 3:55
  2. "Don't You Go Walking" (Mark McEntee) - 5:58
  3. "Good Die Young" (Christina Amphlett, McEntee) - 3:36
  4. "Sleeping Beauty" (Amphlett, McEntee) - 3:38
  5. "Motion" (Amphlett, McEntee) - 3:36
  6. "In My Life" (Amphlett, McEntee) - 3:43
  7. "Casual Encounter" (Amphlett, McEntee) - 3:05
  8. "Heart Telegraph" (Amphlett, McEntee) - 4:48
  9. "Guillotine Day" (Bjarne Ohlin) - 3:08
  10. "Dear Diary" (Ohlin) - 4:25

[edit] Charts

Chart (1985) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Album Chart 4
U.S. Billboard 200 91

[edit] Personnel

  • Christina Amphlett — vocals
  • John Bee — engineer
  • Mary Bradfield Taylor — (background vocals)
  • Rick Chadwick — keyboards, programming
  • Mike Chapman — producer
  • Tom Colley — engineer
  • Simon Darlow — keyboards, programming
  • Rick Grossman — bass
  • Richard Harvey — drums
  • Gary Langan — producer
  • Mars Lazaar — keyboards, programming
  • Bjarne Ohlin — vocals, guitar, keyboards
  • Gary Langan — producer
  • Mark McEntee — vocals, guitar, keyboards
  • Mark Opitz — producer