Melt (Straitjacket Fits album)

Melt
Studio album by Straitjacket Fits
Released	1990
Recorded	July–August 1990, Airforce Studios, New Zealand and Platinum Studios, Australia
Genre	Alternative rock, Dunedin Sound
Length	43:27
Language	English
Label	Flying Nun Records
Producer	Gavin McKillop
Straitjacket Fits chronology
Hail (1988) Melt (1990) Blow (1993)

Melt was the second album from Dunedin, New Zealand band Straitjacket Fits, and the last to feature the original line-up of Shayne Carter, Andrew Brough, John Collie and David Wood; Brough was to leave before the third album, Blow. The album reached no. 13 on the New Zealand music charts. The album would later sell a respectable 40,000 copies in the United States.

The album spawned three singles, "Bad Note for a Heart", "Down in Splendour", and "Roller Ride". Of these, only "Bad Note for a Heart" charted (reaching no. 25 in the New Zealand charts), yet the Andrew Brough single "Down in Splendour" has become acknowledged as the album's best song, being listed at number 32 in 2001 on the Australasian Performing Rights Association's 75th anniversary poll of New Zealand's top 100 songs of all time.^[1] The music video for "Bad Note for a Heart" won the award for best New Zealand music video of 1990.^[2]

The album was seen as being truer to the band's sound than the previous album (Hail), and closer to the live sound and to the sound of the band's debut EP Life in One Chord. The album was described as "...a culmination of searing guitars that never collide and are always textured with the rhythm section's simple powerful backbone.".^[3]

Track listing

1. Bad Note For A Heart (3:48)
2. Missing Presumed Drowned (2:52)
3. Melt Against Yourself (3:37)
4. Headwind (3:24)
5. Down In Splendour (3:41)
6. A.P.S. (4:23)
7. Quiet Come 3:23)
8. Such A Daze (3:05)
9. Skin To Wear (3:18)
10. Hand In Mine (2:53)
11. Roller Ride (3:09)
12. Cast Stone (6:00)

References

1. ^ Listing of APRA New Zealand top 100 songs poll results
2. ^ Davey, T. & Puschmann, H. (1996) Kiwi rock. Dunedin: Kiwi Rock Publications. ISBN 0-473-03718-1. p. 89
3. ^ Rip It Up, November 1990