When Australian rockers Divinyls broke big internationally in 1991 with their poppy single “I Touch Myself,” it seemed to be a bit of an about-face musically compared with their previous music. The band had a rawer energy in their earlier days, and while their late singer Chrissy Amphlett certainly had sex appeal, her defiant, pouty schoolgirl persona was equally alluring and menacing. Her voice and her brash, sometimes head-banging stage presence made her compelling to watch. But after a decade of slogging away in their native Australia and managing to get a little attention in America, they needed a crossover hit that would bring them to a bigger audience. They got it, although “I Touch Myself” is the one song that majority of people here remember them for. (Points for tackling a taboo pop music topic.)
The following selection of Divinyls songs goes beyond that global hit to reveal the …