{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox album | name = Melt | type = studio | artist = Straitjacket Fits | cover =Melt (Straitjacket Fits album).jpg | alt = | released = {{nowrap|1990}} | recorded = {{nowrap|July–August 1990}}, <br />Airforce Studios, New Zealand and Platinum Studios, Australia | venue = | studio = | genre = Alternative rock, Dunedin sound | length = 43:27 | language = English | label = Flying Nun Records<ref name=TP/> | producer = Gavin McKillop<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/melt-mw0000263389|title=Melt - Straitjacket Fits | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic|via=www.allmusic.com}}</ref> | prev_title = Hail | prev_year = 1988 | next_title = Blow | next_year = 1993 }} {{album ratings |rev1 = AllMusic |rev1score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name="auto1"/> }} '''''Melt''''' is the second album from Dunedin, New Zealand band Straitjacket Fits.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/in-love-with-those-times-flying-nun-and-the-dunedin-sound.html|title=In Love With Those Times: Flying Nun and the Dunedin Sound - Article - Stylus Magazine|website=stylusmagazine.com|access-date=23 January 2021|archive-date=24 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724214223/http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/in-love-with-those-times-flying-nun-and-the-dunedin-sound.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was 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''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/straitjacket-fits-mn0000939875/biography|title=Straitjacket Fits | Biography & History|website=AllMusic}}</ref> The album reached no. 13 on the New Zealand music charts, and sold 40,000 copies in the United States.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.audioculture.co.nz/people/straitjacket-fits/stories/straitjacket-fits-part-1|title=Straitjacket Fits part 1 - Story | AudioCulture|website=www.audioculture.co.nz}}</ref>
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 Brough single "Down in Splendour" was later listed at number 32 in 2001 on the Australasian Performing Right Association's 75th anniversary poll of New Zealand's top 100 songs of all time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Music/Lists/APRA100/|title=APRA Top 100 New Zealand Songs Of All Time - Music - Christchurch City Libraries|website=christchurchcitylibraries.com}}</ref> The music video for "Bad Note for a Heart" won the award for best New Zealand music video of 1990.<ref>Davey, T. & Puschmann, H. (1996) ''Kiwi rock.'' Dunedin: Kiwi Rock Publications. {{ISBN|0-473-03718-1}}. p. 89</ref>
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."<ref>''Rip It Up'', November 1990</ref>
==Production== The album was recorded at Airforce Studios in Auckland and Platinum Studios in Australia during July and August 1990.<ref name="auto"/>
==Critical reception== AllMusic wrote that "once the listener gets past the distracting production ... this is probably the Straitjacket Fits' strongest set of songs."<ref name="auto1"/> ''Trouser Press'' wrote that if the production "occasionally yields mush, it also results in brilliance: a swooping, swooning, swelling, surging, soaring (and all that) rush that beautifully captures the intensity of the band’s live shows."<ref name="TP">{{cite web |title=Straitjacket Fits |url=https://trouserpress.com/reviews/straitjacket-fits/ |website=Trouser Press |access-date=23 January 2021}}</ref> The ''Chicago Reader'' praised the "gorgeous sweet-and-sour vibe—lush and abrasive, peppy and mournful, thrilling and sinister."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/straitjacket-fits-flying-nun-melt-hail-carter-brough/Content?oid=82767063|title=Rediscovering New Zealand shoulda-beens Straitjacket Fits|first=Philip|last=Montoro|website=Chicago Reader|date=14 September 2020 }}</ref> ''The Guardian'' called ''Melt'' the band's best album, writing that "Down in Splendour" "shows off their exquisite vocal harmonies and twin-guitar interplay without losing any of the tension that would ultimately destroy the group."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/28/flying-nun-records-10-of-the-best-songs-of-the-dunedin-sound|title=Flying Nun Records: 10 of the best songs of the Dunedin sound|first=Andrew|last=Stafford|newspaper=The Guardian |date=January 27, 2017|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref>
==Track listing== {{Track listing | collapsed = | headline = | extra_column = | total_length =
| all_writing =
| title1 = Bad Note For A Heart | length1 = 3:48
| title2 = Missing Presumed Drowned | length2 = 2:52
| title3 = Melt Against Yourself | length3 = 3:37
| title4 = Headwind | length4 = 3:24
| title5 = Down In Splendour | length5 = 3:41
| title6 = A.P.S | length6 = . 4:23
| title7 = Quiet Come | length7 = 3:23
| title8 = Such A Daze | length8 = 3:05
| title9 = Skin To Wear | length9 = 3:18
| title10 = Hand In Mine | length10 = 2:53
| title11 = Roller Ride | length11 = 3:09
| title12 = Cast Stone | length12 = 6:00
}}
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:Straitjacket Fits albums Category:Dunedin Sound albums Category:1990 albums