The Straitjacket Fits, in present form, slid out of the Flying Nun hatchery somewhere past the midway point of the Dunedin music explosion, with their Life In One Chord EP (all of which is included on side one of this package) announcing their birth in 1987. Compared with how long some other N.Z. bands have languished before some U.S. label discovered them, the first domestic packaging of assorted old Fits stuff has come about in the blink of an eye (Shayne Carter's first group, the Doublehappys, has yet to receive any widespread attention). Shayne's pained and wide-eyed vocals glide above the instrumental interplay and never come back to roost, inhabiting the same faraway regions without strain, matching the twin-guitar pendular strokes swing for swing. There's no lacking of tension-strung minor chord wars, but even the clashings of those passages are sculpted with harmonic purity and control that transforms the longing and aggression into an artful, seraphic ascension. There have been other bands that also tend toward similar sweeping beauty (most notably the Verlaines), but the Straitjacket Fits' unearthly melodic strength and chordal whirlpools form music that eschews references and boundaries. The Fits are shown at their most assured and shining on this release, with "Life In One Chord," "All That That Brings," "Hail" and Leonard Cohen's "So Long, Marianne" the most bewitching tracks.

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