''Charmed Life'' is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the punk rock group

Half Japanese Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair around 1975, sometime after the family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playi ...

, released in 1988. It is their second studio album released on their label,

50 Skidillion Watts 50 Skidillion Watts, also known as "50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Watts Records", was the label used by brothers David and Jad Fair of the punk rock band Half Japanese to release their first albums recorded in the late 1970s. After a ...

. The eighth song, " Bright Lights, Big City," was originally sung and recorded by the American blues musician

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

, in 1961.

Critical reception

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quiet ...

'' wrote: "Less whiny and needy than ''Music To Strip By'', the lyrics are spouted from a lip with more curl and less pucker ... as accessible as Half Japanese get." ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' called the album "a guileless burst of optimism that mutes the shriller frequencies considerably, replacing them with an unaffected, exuberant guitar/harmonica backdrop played by a band."

Track listing

Personnel

Jad Fair Jad Fair (born June 9, 1954) is an American singer, guitarist, graphic artist, and founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese. Biography Fair was born in Coldwater, Michigan. In 1974, he and his brother David formed the lo-fi ...

- guitar, harmonica, vocals *David Fair - guitar, harmonica, vocals * Don Fleming - guitar, vocals *John Dreyfuss - organ, saxophone *Rick Dreyfuss - composer *Mark Jickling - bass guitar, guitar *John Moremen - guitar *Jay Spiegel - drums *

Don Zientara Don Zientara ( ) is an American record producer and musician. He owns and runs Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, located just outside Washington D.C., and is most widely known for his production work with Fugazi, Minor Threat and various ...

- engineer, mixing

References

{{Authority control 1988 albums Half Japanese albums 50 Skidillion Watts albums