Tunin' Around

I once read a description of Divinyls lead singer Christina Amphlett as a fusion of Debbie Harry and Angus Young, and that description was probably never more apt than on their first international release, 1983's Desperate.

Zooey Deschanel's bright eyes, quirky manner and sunny smile may embody the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope found in a lot of indie movies and media, but well before her was Amphlett, the Maniac Pixie Dream Girl with a much more feral light in her eyes and smile.

Amphlett and guitarist Mark McEntee were the only constant ingredients in an career of changing styles and sounds, but on Desperate they are in full hard rock mode with a little punk edge supplied by Amphlett's howled, scowled, shrieked and wailed vocals. This is not "I Touch Myself."

The album's overall tone is driving and urgent, ranging from the opener "Boys in Town" to "Siren" to the closer, a cover of the Easybeats' 1966 hit "I'll Make You Happy." Richard Harvey's drums propel these and other faster numbers at a thrashing pace, and guitarists McIntee and Bjarne Ohlin add the air of desperation the album title suggests. Even the poppier entries like "Only Lonely" or "Only You" are kept on the shadowy side of quirky by Amphlett's hiccupy kewpie vocals -- they sound like what might happen if someone gave Batman villainess Harley Quinn a recording contract. "Victoria" features what's probably her most mainstream vocal performance of the album, but McIntee's dissonant guitar gives the song a haunting hook that builds towards and almost Broadway-styled full-on belt-it-out ending.

Despite her trashy schoolgirl look and aggressive sexual posture, Amphlett sings as a person contemplating and reflecting on important matters, especially of the heart. The "Boys in Town" see little beyond her surface except for the one who's "not like the rest/you've heard of matrimony/They've all flunked the test." It's probably a reflection of an earlier time that even for a hardcore punk like the one Amphlett sings about in this song, the thing that sets one boy in town apart from the others is the possibility he might think about the commitment of marriage.

Four more albums would follow before the Amphlett/McIntee duo finally parted ways in the 1990s, including the 1991 diVINYLS, which contained "I Touch Myself," their biggest hit. Amphlett maintained her off-kilter persona and McIntee his powerful playing through all their different styles. They reunited after the band was inducted in the the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame in 2006 and recorded several new songs along with some live dates, but never put together a full album in this incarnation. They ended again in 2009 and Amphlett died of breast cancer in 2013; she had been unable to have either chemotherapy or radiation treatments because she suffered from multiple sclerosis.

Her friends and family created a foundation helping to promote breast cancer awareness and the importance of self-examination for women. In a move that would certainly have brought out Amphlett's trademark psycho-Tinkerbell grin, it was called the "I Touch Myself Project."