Customer Reviews

What a Life

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What A Life is, in my opinion, the best of The Divinyls releases. Much better than their breakthrough self titled 1991 effort. Christina Amphlett's angry and demonic voice blazes through this disc like a bat out of hell. From her schoolgirl confessions on "In My Life" to her pleadings with an abusive lover in "Pleasure And Pain", her vocals are downright saucy. At her best, she sounds like an angel with hell scorched wings on the haunting "Dear Diary". To put it plainly, there is NO voice today like Christina Amphlett's. This cd is out of print in the US, so snap it up before it becomes unavailable forever!!! A great price, too.

Before Nirvana, before Godsmack, before Alanis, before anybody considered alternative nowadays, there was Christina Amphlett and the Divinyls, period. This album was made in 1984, when many of todays "alternative" band members were still in diapers.
It is also one of the rare albums, you can play front to back without skipping any songs.

Australia has produced some fine bands (Bon Scott's AC/DC) & some absolute rubbish (Men at Work), but none can compare to Christina Amphlett, "The Wonder From Down Under" & her band Divinyls. This is the best of their releases, a truly amazing experiment in powerful, energetic Punk/Pop that has never been duplicated - & judging by the state of music these days - never will!!
This is one of my favorite albums of ALL TIME! "What A Life!" is one of those rare examples of a record that kicks ass from opening note to glorious conclusion; every song, every chord, every lyric intelligently crafted by talented musicians who know how to get a point across to the listener without being pretentious or overbearing. Amphlett's delivery is caustic yet invigorating, raw yet poignant, sweet & sexy yet sinister all at once - a feat only a rare few can attain. Each tune has its own unique identity, yet they blend together seamlessly as if parts of a "concept" album. The instruments accent each other perfectly, & when combined with Amphlett's power they resemble a hard-rocking blues band more than a punk outfit (a la Patti Smith or Concrete Blonde). This record must be listened to in its entirety to get the full impact - cherry-picking is for 80 IQ & under lame-oids!
MTV & VH-1 classify Divinyls as "One-hit Wonders", which shows how much they know about music! Trust me - this band is HOT!! I highly recommend EVERY DIVINYLS RECORD, but this is the best of the best! Do yourself a favor & add "What A Life!" to your collection - you'll never watch music television again!!

WHAT A LIFE is the most sonically diverse Divinyls record. It ranges from the sleek Pleasure and Pain, to the raw guitar rock of Guillotine Day and also includes some more experimental sounds on Dear Diary. This is partly due to the number of producers who worked on it - including Mark Chapman (Blondie) and Gary Langan (Art of Noise). It's definitely worth a listen - Pleasure and Pain and Sleeping Beauty are two of their best ever songs.

The second full-length album by the DiVinyls, this is the 'International' Edition of "What A Life" that was released for the world at large and not the original Australian version, which is apparantly unavailable anywhere on CD. The two differ in this disc's exclusion of the tracks 'Talk Like The Rain', 'Old Radios', 'Para-Dice' and 'What A Life', and the abscence of 'Don't You Go Walking', 'Motion' and 'Casual Encounter' from the old original version. This disc is perfect in the songs it has, but somehow somebody has to get those other tracks out on CD format.

Onto the disc at hand: "What A Life" is definately the most New Wave-ish of the DiVinyls's albums, mixed with more of a power rock/hard rock style than New Wave usually has (I'm not really an expert on the style but I have heard and liked some of it). And it's quintessentially DiVinyls, having that unique intangible that's at the core of all their albums, whatever style they're playing, that's always taken bits and pieces of the best of so many genres and subgenres until the DiVinyls almost constitute their own genre.

"Pleasure And Pain" is one of the least typical musically of the group's output, probably because ('cover songs' excluded) it's the only one they've done that none of the band members wrote or co-wrote. It's a great song though, very well written and distinctively performed, about a woman trying to find a way out of an abusive relationship. It's got this poppy beat, strange for a song of its subject matter, but Christina Amphlett's vocals hit all the right notes emotionally and it, like other tracks before and after this album, debunks the notion among critics that DiVinyls only do one kind of lyrical material. "Pleasure And Pain" helps show their true versatility musically and lyrics-wise.

"Don't You Go Walking" treads the tried but true ground of 'lover don't leave' material found on so many rock albums, but with the added vocal quirks and impassioned bellowing Amphlett brings to the table and a great extended guitar outro. "Good Die Young" is on the much rarer (musically) ground of what I think of as Dark New Wave, with drummer Richard Harvey getting a good chance to shine, and another turn of the tragic/dark side of Chrissie's vocals which she used to such devastating effect on "Elsie" off the "Desperate" album.
"Sleeping Beauty" - now here's the kind of song the DiVinyls Are known for, and how they shine on this one! Deliciously suggestive vocals from Chrissie ranging from dreamily pure to teasingly playful to red-hot whispered husky. "Motion" is just plain bizarre, and wonderfully so, with Chrissie in full Wild Girl mode through most of her singing.

On "In My Life" though, the vocals manage to go from wild to downright scary. Christina is one of four singers I know who can really, on more than just an occasional basis, 'sing scary' when they want to (the others are Alice Cooper, King Diamond and Till Lindemann from Rammstein). This is a delight though, not dark. Roller coaster ride scary vocals. "Casual Encounter" is a misinterpreted song. People say it's mean and taunting; I get the opposite from it. It's about a girl looking for love (and sex, might as well call a spade a spade) but who's tired and cranky (Really cranky in this case) from potential suitors faking the first just to try to get the second. That's how I read it anyway. Musically, it's one of the most clearly Hard Rock tracks on the album and the least New Wave.

"Heart Telegraph" is really different musically again, with unique intro effects and a pulsing, electronic-sounding rhythm throughout and more subdued but still excellent vocals. "Guillotine Day"'s vocals are definately not subdued and highlighted by great keyboards.

The album ends with "Dear Diary", one of the most beautifully haunting tracks I've ever heard. Soft and powerful vocals, an outstanding example of the art of songwriting, incredible musicianship all around, the effect of the rain heard in the background fitting in perfectly, the slow drums seeming to bleed with unnameable emotions. A perfect way to close an eclectic album.

Only downsides: not enough pictures of Christina (alright, to be fair there'd have to be some of the rest of the band too, but it's the abscence of a booklet of Chrissie pictures I'm mourning); the 4 missing tracks from the original version of this still NEED to get out there ("Old Radios" has the single most adorably bizarre vocals I've ever heard) and it's been too many years since there was any new DiVinyls material. Maybe they've retired or gone onto non-performing ventures, but if you read this, PLEASE consider coming back for even just a couple of new songs to go on a collection of rarities. We miss you!

Okay, enough lamentations. Great, eclectic and unforgettable album. 10/10, at the very least.

I've had this album (now on CD) since it came out and the first three songs are worth the purchase. After this release they were in it for the $$$ so this is the one to buy.

Love the Divinyls ever since I saw the video for 'Boys in town'. Remarkably enough Mtv, in it's early 80's transmissions became my introduction along with Night Flight etc. The many genres of music that I felt obscure for the uninformed came to light.
*---seEems with age one loses oneself in other relations and forget the roots/past where their was warmth and youth that looked up to these muses. They were the Gods...the messangers.
I still want the complete collection of videos and concert's...in a format I am able to read in the US of A.
Once saw a fabulous concert, early 80's, late one night on Mtv of the Divinyls----was Great! featuring their early year recordings of 'Desperate'....and maybe more...I was drunk but did record it onto VHS at the time. Me and my girl...both gay*queer*babies, worshipped Christina and Mark...the lyrical gifts and melodies. The performance of her in her school girl outfit/misfit pouring a jug of water atop her head, picking crawlies from her white hose and eating them as if deranged or.....gorgeous shamanistic performance.
Her band was rocking too, but in time we see members change which is a shame @}-{

Love and times.
Stitcdhv8
Mike

I love this cd By Australia's Divinyls...My favorite songs are: Pleasure and Pain and Dear diary..I love Christina's super sexy style. The Divinyls will always be one of the best rock bands of the 80's..Must have for Divinyls fans!

God I miss the eighties! when are we going to have another creative explosion, from the looks of things that's not going to happen. I loved this band the first time I saw them on MTV, and I miss them. When is America going to wake up and smell the roses instead of wallowing headfirst in the dingleberries of current music. Stop pipe dreaming...Guitar driven and fun! classic alternative rock album, not really a bad song on it...give it a try at least for nostalgic interest and remember... they did it before Nirvana or Hole or any other imitator that's followed.

What A Life (released mid 80s)is by far their least enjoyable album. Kind of rough around the edges and not as well written, it is a mediocre 2nd effort (as is usual with artists). The one great track is "Pleasure and Pain". Their debut "Desperate"('83 or so),"Temperamental"(1988)and the self titled "Divinyls"(1990)(that had that interesting Masturbations song) were far more superior works. So if you want a good album try this - but if you want a good Divinyls album try elsewhere.