And you thought only whimsical, bland bands had joined the Australian Invasion. Meet–if you dare–Christina Amphlett, the pint-size lead singer for this down-under quintet, whose debut album is a fine and feisty piece of rock & roll. Amphlett's banzai vocals fuse the growly conviction of Joan Jett with the frenetic ululations of Lene Lovich for a vocal package that suggests a Sydney-spawned Patti Smith. Her brash breathiness on the gender-twister "Boys in Town" is reminiscent of "Pumping (in My Heart)," and the blistering "Siren" shows she can cut a raveup with the best of them.

The twin-guitar attack of Mark McEntee (who cowrote all but two of the tracks with Amphlett) and Bjarne Ohlin sizzles with an impressive urgency on "Only You" and dances around the melody on "Only Lonely" (which recalls the Pretenders). But even McEntee and Ohlin's notable chops take a back seat to the galvanizing presence of Amphlett. The idiosyncrasies occasionally overwhelm the talent here, but the garage-band power of Desperate sounds to these ears like 1983's best antidote to technopop burnout. (RS 391)

CHRISTOPHER CONNELLY