What a Life! is the second studio album by Australian band Divinyls, released in October 1985^[1] by Chrysalis Records. The album is a genre of rock and new wave songs—written by Divinyls members Christina Amphlett and Mark McEntee.

History

After touring and promoting in the United States, Divinyls came back to Australia to begin the follow-up to Desperate, with Mark Opitz producing again. They produced three songs including "Don't You Go Walking" and "Motion" 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.^[5]

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 ended up producing only two songs: "Pleasure and Pain" (which he also co-wrote with Holly Knight) and "Sleeping Beauty". The album was released almost two years after recording began. It reached No.4 in Australia and No.91 in the US, while "Pleasure and Pain" hit No.11 in Australia and the lower reaches of the Top 100 in the US. Two later singles, "Sleeping Beauty" and "Heart Telegraph", charted moderately in Australia but did little in the US. Despite its Australian success, Chrysalis declared the album a failure.^[5]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[6]

Rolling Stone described the music as "loud and hard-edged, as purely physical as any metal band, but tempered with ... swaggering rowdiness". Ram magazine noted the band's writing had a newfound maturity, "verbalising adult fears and lingering adolescent yearnings".^[5] AllMusic's later review said many of the album tracks were hardly memorable and that the band's best strengths lay both in Amphlett's unique vocal delivery, and McEntee's bottom-heavy, grungy, guitar work.

Track listing

Australian release

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Pleasure and Pain"	Mike Chapman, Holly Knight	Mike Chapman	3:55
2.	"Sleeping Beauty"	Christina Amphlett, Mark McEntee	Mike Chapman	3:38
3.	"Good Die Young"	Amphlett, McEntee	Gary Langan	3:36
4.	"Guillotine Day"	Bjarne Ohlin	Gary Langan	3:08
5.	"Talk Like the Rain"	Amphlett, McEntee	Charles Fisher	3:07
6.	"Heart Telegraph"	Amphlett, McEntee	Gary Langan	4:48
7.	"Old Radios"	Amphlett, McEntee	Gary Langan	4:06
8.	"In My Life"	Amphlett, McEntee	Gary Langan	3:43
9.	"Para-Dice"	McEntee, Rick Grossman	Gary Langan	3:53
10.	"What a Life!"	Amphlett, McEntee	Mark McEntee, Charles Fisher	4:03
11.	"Dear Diary"	Bjarne Ohlin	Gary Langan	4:25

US release

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Pleasure and Pain"	Mike Chapman, Holly Knight	Mike Chapman	3:55
2.	"Don't You Go Walking"	Mark McEntee	Mark Opitz	5:58
3.	"Good Die Young"	Amphlett, McEntee	Gary Langan	3:36
4.	"Sleeping Beauty"	Christina Amphlett, McEntee	Mike Chapman	3:38
5.	"Motion"	Amphlett, McEntee	Mark Opitz	3:36
6.	"In My Life"	Amphlett, McEntee	Gary Langan	3:43
7.	"Casual Encounter"	Amphlett, McEntee	Mark Opitz	3:05
8.	"Heart Telegraph"	Amphlett, McEntee	Gary Langan	4:48
9.	"Guillotine Day"	Bjarne Ohlin	Gary Langan	3:08
10.	"Dear Diary"	Bjarne Ohlin	Gary Langan	4:25

Charts

Chart (1985)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)^[7]	4
US Billboard 200	91

Personnel

Christina Amphlett – vocals, writer
Mark McEntee – vocals, guitar, keyboards, writer
Richard Harvey – drums
Bjarne Ohlin – vocals, guitar, keyboards, writer
Rick Grossman – bass, writer
Rick Chadwick – keyboards, programming
Mars Lazaar – keyboards, programming
Mary Bradfield Taylor – background vocals
Simon Darlow – keyboards, programming
Charles Fisher – producer, mixer
Mike Chapman – producer, writer
Gary Langan – producer
Mark Opitz – producer
Tom Colley – engineer
John Bee – engineer
Richard Meuke – engineer

Sales


Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia	—	100,000^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b "Kent Music Report No 590 – 28 October 1985 > LP & Tape: New Releases". Kent Music Report. Retrieved 30 September 2020 – via Imgur.com.
^ "Kent Music Report No 525 – 16 July 1984 > Singles: New Releases". Kent Music Report. Retrieved 30 September 2020 – via Imgur.com.
^ "Kent Music Report No 582 – 2 September 1985 > Singles: New Releases". Kent Music Report. Retrieved 30 September 2020 – via Imgur.com.
^ "Kent Music Report No 616 – 5 May 1985 (sic) > Singles: New Releases". Imgur.com (original document published by Kent Music Report). Retrieved 30 November 2017. N.B. This document erroneously lists the year as 1985 rather than 1986.
^ ^a ^b ^c Chrissy Amphlett & Larry Writer, "Pleasure and Pain: My Life", Hodder Australia, 2005.
^ Allmusic review
^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St. Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 91. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. N.B. the Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between mid-1983 and 12 June 1988.
^ Barker, Glenn A. (15 November 1985). "Pacing the Majors…". Billboard. p. A-6.

v t e Divinyls
Chrissy Amphlett Mark McEntee Bjarne Ohlin Jeremy Paul Richard Harvey Richard Grossman Frank Infante Charley Drayton Charlie Owen Jerome Smith Clayton Doley
Studio albums	Desperate What a Life! Temperamental Divinyls Underworld
Compilation albums	Essential The Collection Make You Happy Greatest Hits The Essential
Singles	"Boys in Town" "Science Fiction" "Siren (Never Let You Go)" "Casual Encounter" "Good Die Young" "In My Life" "Pleasure and Pain" "Sleeping Beauty" "Heart Telegraph" "Back to the Wall" "Hey Little Boy" "Punxsie" "I Touch Myself" "Love School" "I'm On Your Side" "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" "Wild Thing" "Love Is the Drug" "I'm Jealous" "Hard On Me" "Human on the Inside" "For a Good Time" "Don't Wanna Do This"
Related	Discography