Chin Chin is the third album by Australian band Skunkhour. It was released in 1997 and peaked at No.34 on the Australian album charts in August.[4] The album was the second on the Sony/Epic label and was produced by Magoo, whose credits included Regurgitator and Powderfinger.

Chin Chin
Studio album by
ReleasedJuly 1997
RecordedVelvet Sound, Sydney
GenreIndie rock
Length55:24
LabelEpic Records
ProducerSkunkhour, Magoo
Skunkhour chronology
Feed
(1995)
Chin Chin
(1997)
The Go
(2001)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Daily Telegraph[1]
Sydney Morning Herald[2]
Sunday Herald Sun[3]

Three singles were taken from the album—"Breathing Through My Eyes" (May 1997), "Weightlessness" (August) and "Morning Rolls" (November).[4]

The album was the band's first after the departure of founding vocalist/rapper Del Larkin, who quit to pursue a career in Walt Disney Animation Studios. Bassist Dean Sutherland told the Herald Sun the lineup change forced a reshaping of the band's sound from funk-influenced hip hop to robust electronic soul. "It's the exit of the rap and the entrance of melody," he said. "I love hip hop, but with Del leaving, we weren't going to try and fill his shoes by getting another rapper, so we just continued without him."[5]

The band conceived and developed many of the tracks while touring in Europe in early 1997 and said the sound bore some European influences. "We get a lot of our musical ideas from sound checks," guitarist Warwick Scott told The Age. "We just jammed and a lot of the new material came from those sound checks all over Europe."[6]

Track listing edit

(All songs written by Skunkhour)

  1. "Breathing Through My Eyes" – 4:12
  2. "Chew" – 4:21
  3. "Morning Rolls" – 4:40
  4. "Tomorrow's Too Soon" – 4:06
  5. "Foam" – 5:18
  6. "Unison" – 5:33
  7. "Opportunist" – 3:03
  8. "Another Childish Man" – 4:46
  9. "Old Shoe Horn" – 5:02
  10. "Weightlessness" – 3:58
  11. "Nature Stripped" – 4:47
  12. "Pulse" – 5:35

Personnel edit

  • Aya Larkin – vocals
  • Warwick Scott – guitar
  • Dean Sutherland – bass
  • Michael Sutherland – drums
  • Paul Searles – keyboards
  • Chris Simms – percussion

Charts edit

Chart performance for Chin Chin
Chart (1997) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[7] 34

References edit

  1. ^ Angus Fontaine, The Daily Telegraph, 31 July 1997, page 70.
  2. ^ Sacha Molitorisz, The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 October 1997, page 7.
  3. ^ Graeme Hammond, Sunday Herald Sun, 14 September 1997.
  4. ^ a b McFarlane, Ian (1999). The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. pp. 578. ISBN 978-1-86-448768-8.
  5. ^ Mcutchen, Andrew (7 August 1997). "Smells like a new Skunkhour". Herald Sun. Melbourne.
  6. ^ Maunder, Trish (1 August 1997). "Are you ready for some snow time?". The Age. Melbourne.
  7. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Skunkhour – Chin Chin". Hung Medien. Retrieved 15 October 2022.