Split Enz The Beginning of the Enz (Vinyl, Mushroom Records, 1979) **** Split Enz Mental Notes (Vinyl and CD, White Cloud Records/ Mushroom Records, 1975) *****
Split Enz Mental Notes (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1976) ****
Split Enz Dizrythmia (Vinyl, Mushroom Records, 1977) *****
Split Enz Frenzy (Vinyl, Mushroom Records, 1979) ***
Split Enz True Colours (Vinyl, Mushroom Records, 1980) ****
Split Enz Waiata (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1981) ***
Split Enz Time and Tide (CD, WEA Records, 1982) ***
Split Enz Conflicting Emotions (Vinyl, CD, Mushroom Records, 1983) ***
Split Enz See Ya 'Round (Vinyl, Mushroom Records, 1984) ***
Genre: NZ Music, pop, art rock, prog rock, new wave
Places I remember: Marbecks Records, Little Red Bookshop, JB Hi Fi, Chaldon Books and Records,
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Six Months in a Leaky Boat (Time and Tide)
Gear costume: Without a Doubt (Dizrythmia)
They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6
Active compensatory factors: I bow to my good friend Kevin Simms in terms of his knowledge of Split Ends/Split Enz and his remarkable collection of their albums and singles. In comparison I scratch the surface with single copies of their albums and a smattering of singles. Along with thousands of fellow boomers who were glued to NZ's single channel TV station in 1973, our origin stories remain similar (you can read about it here).
Before Mental Notes came along, The Beginning of the Enz album celebrates those early singles and tentative steps (the demos of some early songs). In many ways this is my favourite period - it seemed like no one outside of Mt Albert Grammar School in 1973 was talking about Split Ends apart from me and my mates. They were our secret band! When Mike gave me a copy of their single I was made up.
Looking at the clip now it seems very innocuous but in the early 70s it was revolutionary in NZ to see a scruffy bunch of university students singing 129 on the telly.
That single is among the songs chosen for this compilation - 129 and the Sweet Talkin' Spoon Song. Both extraordinary. The rest of the album is a testament to their early brilliance - like nothing else we'd heard in NZ.
That feeling would continue for Mental Notes in 1975. I really think highly of all but one song on this classic, iconic kiwi album (that one song, in case you were wondering, is So Long For Now - not a bad song by any means but for me, the weakest song on the album).
I confess that I did not get Mental Notes immediately - mainly because it seemed so different to that poppy single. It was weirdly art rockish, almost goth, with dark, doomy and dense overtones to my Led Zep/Deep Purple stained ears. So, I was suspicious of Mental Notes for quite a while, but I backtracked to it eventually.
It's lovable because it's a one-off - a unique moment in their evolution. They'd return quickly to the poptastic sounds with the next albums - post Judd. Mental Notes feels like Phil Judd's particular set of visions - he dominates. For me it has special resonance because of the reliance on dreamscapes, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy and a surreal Alice in Wonderland feel. The heavy themes of fear and childhood traumas are unusual in their canon, and they add layers of depth that Tim et al were unwilling or unable to return to after Judd left.
IMHO the album as a whole is their Sgt. Peppers. I think that was deliberate on their part as there are quite a few parallels: the rabid progressive Beatle-ish experimentation after a poptastic start to their career; the use of sound effects to link some tracks or the close segue into the next song makes it all feel linked; the conceptual overview (mental notes and the torture of relationships). Children/parents feature a lot - and there are a lot of missing people in these songs. BTW I like the ambiguity of both words - mental as in inside the head and the crazy connotation plus note - musical and written. Other similariyies are the repetition of the phrase mental notes in the run out groove and Spellbound's similarity to A Day in the Life as the penultimate song before the run-out groove. Plus, each album seems like the band's definitive statement.
My fav songs have changed over the years. Early on - as in the eighties/nineties, it was the longer more proggy kitchen sink songs - Stranger Than Fiction, Under the Wheel and Spellbound, but in the latter years my two clear favourites are the shorter and poppier Maybe and Titus. I tend to think of those two songs together actually as they complement each other so well.
Titus is an amazing song by Phil Judd - the one time on the album that he briefly lets the artiface slip and his soul is laid bare for a split (enz) second - when are you coming back to me? - before the self-deprecating 'babe' tries to recapture the nonchalance. Heart-breaking.
I love the surreal lyrics he creates on this song and the brilliant interplay between Tim and him - perfect foils for each other at this point. It also has that early classic mandolin sound that I really really love. Spine-tingling this song - genius and pain etched in the killing me/lying to me refrain! Btw Titus seems to be referencing Mervyn Peake's gothic novels - Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone. Wonderful novels that I read as a teenager. Titus as a character doesn't appear in the song though, I don't think.
Musically, I especially like the drumming, the mellotron provides a great soundscape and the Pink Floyd style special effects. Sparse guitaring in these songs - seems Eddie provides the keyboard riffs a lot of the time, but highly effective when it comes in. The twists and turns in the songs - time and space - I really love. But then I'm a big fan of prog rock. It's so much of its time - lightning in a bottle.
The UK version of Mental Notes on Chrysalis is a mix of early stuff with selected tracks of the original Mental Notes. It's cool to have but it's a curiosity.
If push comes to shove Dizrythmia is my favourite Split Enz album. Always has been.
Ironically, after Phil Judd and Mike Chunn left the band (both had commercial hits later with The Swingers and Citizen Band respectively) they returned to the commercial mothership with their next single - My Mistake. Cor! What a song! They followed that up with another brilliant single - Bold As Brass. These were big hits in NZ and I was hooked, again.
Those late seventies days were heady ones for me: going to Auckland University, meeting new people, living a self-indulgent lifestyle that was so carefree in so many ways. Split Enz as they now called themselves were a real part of that. Both in concert and on record.
I saw a few of their late seventies Auckland shows - most notably at the Auckland Town Hall and His Majesty's Theatre, that one in the company of the brothers Knowles. I remember the Town Hall one because The Swingers were the support and they were deafeningly loud. It was a really unpleasant experience for me and my date (Phyllis Omand). The Enz sound was much better but it's the His Majesty's one that I remember best of those Dizrythmia centred gigs. The venue was great and we had superb views. It is a very cherished memory of a band at their peak (in my opinion) and a great, iconic, venue (His Majesty's was demolished in the late eighties).
But, here we are in 2025. Older, more knowledgeable, and definitely wiser. Unlike my buddies, I much prefer a live album to a live in person experience; especially these days. And a vinyl record remains the best of all. I listened to this album four times during the week and the vinyl version sounded much better than the Spotify experience.
Back in '77 I knew very little about the inner dynamics of the band - i.e. why Phil Judd, Mike Chunn and Emlyn Crowther left and were replaced by Neil Finn, Nigel Griggs and Malcolm Green. Without the internet, a celebrity culture, and with Rip It Up just starting out - I was in the dark about how much of the album reflected the tensions between Phil and Tim.
Now, of course, we have the benefit of hindsight, the internet, and completist collectors (it seems Kevy is by no means alone in his collecting approach to Split Enz). So, we now know much more.
Which brings me to Dizrythmia. I hadn't heard it for years, so - here we go - a fresh listen in 2025!
The album title is interesting - Kevy says the 'z' is a nod to Nu Zild and I'm happy to believe him. The absence of an 'h' is more problematic though. Presumably they named the record after the medical condition (an abnormal heartbeat) because the beats are irregular - i.e. not the usual. So, the name signals something bizarre, off-kilter and unusual is coming (in sympathy with their hair, clothes, and style of music).
The cover is also fractured, disjointed and unusual. Each of the seven members is seen separately and each comes with their upside down near reflection. Things ain't what they used to be (the Mental Notes cover has a group portrait).
The schism between Phil and Tim becomes the focus for many of the album's best songs, mostly from Tim's p.o.v. as he's the main lyricist (and lead singer throughout). It's a chance for Tim to start over again but he clearly misses his creative foil: First song, Bold As Brass, presents Tim's mission statement -Standing fast as bold as brass/ Holding on until the last/ Call the tune and play it all day long/ There's a song that's just begun/ Strikes a chord in everyone/ It's the decent thing to do your best.
In My Mistake Tim wishes Phil well, even though he misses him - When all I needed was a friend/ To make me stop and think again/ To pull me up and pull me through/ Tally ho, your health my dear.
Maybe the duality is best summed up in Without A Doubt (my favourite song on Dizrythmia) - When you have yourself a friend/ Then you have yourself a foe/ My right to defend, yours to scatter with one blow, and in Crosswords - We're still friends but we're still fighting.
Musically this may be the bravest Split Enz album. It often seems the band dares to be different at every opportunity and those songs where they chanced their arm are terrific. The most straightforward pop song is Nice To Know and it's probably the weakest one (still great, but the rest is outstanding in a next level way).
Apart from Tim's superb vocals (he really does a terrific job as leader as well - tally ho!), special mentions to Eddie who emerges as a star turn, Rob Gillies who adds some spectacularly skonky sax, and Neil who doesn't have a huge role, but he never wastes a chance, or a note. His stabbing guitar riffs on Nice To Know are brilliant touches.
They are all ably supported in their endeavours by Geoff Emerick. He of course worked as an engineer on Beatles records and George Martin credited him with bringing "a new kind of mind to the recordings, always suggesting sonic ideas, different kinds of reverb, what we could do with the voices".
The final song, Jamboree, is the closest song to the art-rock of Mental Notes (Mike Chunn and Phil Judd are listed among the composers, so it was probably a song that was left off MN). It was one of my favourites back in the seventies, mainly for their spirited performance on stage - Neil and Tim's weird dancing to it and larking about on stage. It ranks for me with Noel's spoons solo and Tim's bravura live version of Charley. I was spellbound!
So, there we have it (and I haven't even focused on fan favourite - Charley) - Dizrythmia is a great snapshot in time. A time of inner changes to the Split Enz fabric, but they emerge triumphant, ready to set off on Tim's endless quest: it's the decent thing to do your best. I love that rallying cry.
I can't fault this album. A five-star classic, a national treasure, and part of our national DNA.
Frenzy returned to a Mental Notes style cover - a painting of the new look Enz against an iconic Nu Zild landscape of sheep, cabbage trees and a tin shed. The band are seen as ordinary kiwi blokes against that background - something they are and they aren't.
The poppier music was a bit of a let down after the excesses of Dizrythmia with Neil starting to exercise his presence, albeit tentatively, with two lead vocals. The production by Mallory Earl and mix feels flat to my ears. I have two initial Aussie pressings so my copies don't include I See Red, added for subsequent editions of Frenzy.
Everything about Frenzy feels transitional to me: the cover's focus away from the bizarre costuming; Neil's emergence; Eddie's keyboards; and the changing emphasis towards mainstream pop songs. At the time I really enjoyed the album, but it hasn't aged particularly well.
What were they transitioning towards? True Colours. It became their big seller thanks to the big pop single - I Got You. I have two copies - a special laser disc edition (1979) and the recent reissue in 2020 with Eddie tinkering with the sound to update it (I can't tell the difference).
Where Frenzy felt slightly flat, True Colours, produced by David Tickle, pops and leaps off the turntable. The big hit is not out of place here with some other great Enz songs coming to the party: Shark Attack; Poor Boy; I Hope I Never being particular favourites.
Waiata was next and again there were some smash hits on it: One Step Ahead and History Never Repeats were another couple of Neil Finn songs that propelled the album to success. The only problem was that there were other songs on the album that were in the nice but forgettable category. Given the huge success of True Colours, Waiata was a bit of a letdown. It proved a hard act to follow, as the band indicated on side 1, track 1.
Time and Tide was their seventh studio album. It has three great songs - Dirty Creature, Six Months in a Leaky Boat and Haul Away and a lot of other songs. Neil's contributions are not particularly strong for this outing except for the catchy Hello Sandy Allen. I'm swimming against the tide (see what I did there?) with my rating for this one and their next.
I much prefer Conflicting Emotions. Apparently, the band cite this album and the creative time making it as the beginning of the enz (okay - I'll stop it now) but I don't hear it. Instead, I hear a great cohesive album.
Their ninth and final studio album is See Ya 'Round from 1984. Tim had gapped it to continue his solo career, leaving Neil to shoulder the responsibility of producing a Split Enz album. It's Split Enz, so it's not a bad album - I Walk Away is a lovely song and was a deserved hit in Nu Zild. That said it doesn't compare well to their seventies glory years.
Where do they all belong? Apart from a couple of compilations - that's it for this iconic, legendary band. I don't own any live albums and I should so I'll look out for them.
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