''Life in One Chord'' is an EP by

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

band

Straitjacket Fits Straitjacket Fits formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1986 and were a prominent band in the Flying Nun label's second wave of the Dunedin sound. Biography Like many of their Flying Nun stable-mates, the band hailed from the southern city of Dun ...

, released in 1987. It was the band's debut release. All of the tracks from the EP were included as part of an extended version of their first full album, '' Hail''. The songs are credited to

Shayne Carter Shayne P. Carter is a New Zealand musician best known for leading Straitjacket Fits from 1986 to 1994, and as the only permanent member of Dimmer (1995–2012). Carter is a member of the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame, and has been awarded the ...

/Straitjacket Fits except for "Sparkle That Shines" (

Andrew Brough Andrew Mark Brough (7 May 1963 – 2 February 2020) was a singer, songwriter and guitarist from Dunedin, New Zealand. Best known for his work with the Straitjacket Fits, he later led the band Bike. In 1996 he was shortlisted for the APRA Silver ...

/Straitjacket Fits). "Sparkle That Shines" was released as a single in 1989. The EP spent 10 weeks on the New Zealand charts.

Production

The EP, produced by Terry Moore, was recorded at The Lab, in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

Critical reception

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 ...

'' wrote that the EP "occasionally trips over its own ambition but dazzles on the wild 'Dialing a Prayer'." '' Melody Maker'' called the EP "one psychotic straitlaced feline mutha of a record." In a retrospective article, the '' Sunday Star-Times'' wrote: "Right from the first note of their first EP, ''Life in One Chord'' (1987), Shayne Carter made up his own world, a personalised gothic opera, with Carter playing the rebel rock star in the grand, sneering tradition of early Elvis, John Lennon and Sid Vicious."

Track listing

References

{{Authority control Straitjacket Fits albums Dunedin Sound albums 1987 EPs