MENTAL NOTES

In 1975 seven quirky young New Zealanders gathered together to record one of the most unlikely but true masterpieces of the whole progressive movement. This record is a veritable orgy of musical fusions, so many different styles and so much ambition all carefully harnessed in a wonderfully rich way, filled with pop sensibility.

Mental Notes, amazingly, the debut album from future 80s New Wavers Split Enz, contains elements of symphonic prog, bizarre morbid art rock, beautiful ballads, cheesy upbeat pop songs, truly unique acoustic passages and even some folk and country, all packaged into a quintessentially antipodean feel. The centrepiece of the album is 4 magical and very different masterpieces of prog glory (and will be marked as such) which while unique and individual in themselves provide the basis for which the band can explore experimental territory with the rest of the LP, knowing that no matter how bad something might backfire they will still always have these 4 tracks alone to make the album more than average. And it never does backfire.

WALKING DOWN A ROAD (Masterpiece No.1): The album begins with one of the more ORGASMIC intros ever. An amazing mellotron wash that slowly gets louder over the first 30 seconds of Walking Down A Road leads us into the rest of a truly great album. This track is a wonderful upbeat mish-mash of Tim Finn's melodies and riffs, all packed together in just over 5 minutes in what really should be a 15 minute song. It contains all the hallmarks that make this such a great album such as awesome rocking guitar riffs, time signature changes and arty lyrics.

AND A MANDOLIN!

UNDER THE WHEEL (Masterpiece No.2): This gem is every bit Walking Down A Road's equal but you could not find 2 more differing songs. The longest officially released song in the Split Enz catalogue, clocking in at 7:47, Under The Wheel is maybe the only instance in the band's career where they could legitimately be accused of pretentious self-indulgence (along with perhaps The Woman Who Loves You off their Second Thoughts follow up to a far lesser extent). But if songs like this are the result of an overblown Phil Judd psyche then godammit I wish that insane genius had been around for far longer. A mindblowingly grandiose deathly poem, filled with more than generous amounts of virtuoso keyboardist Eddie Rayner's mellotron, this is probably the most progressively sinister this usually jolly band got.

AMY (DARLING): This song for the most part is a step down from the first 2 on the album. I give it a slight bad wrap as it gets a bad break being placed after such genius works. Like everything on the album this is a very lovely song, it is just not to the same level. This is the most guitar oriented track on the album with a more folky feel and even a bit of a country sound. Amy is peppered with some hilariously twee lyrics which make for a pleasant listen but in general the hideous 'kiwiness' of it all and its slight overlength combine to make my bored mind wandering off to think about sheep midway through the song, and I find myself with a raging hard-on by the time of its completion.

SO LONG FOR NOW: I can't think of what to write about for this song. I think that says more than anything I could ever rave on about. I associate So Long For Now with Amy in a number of ways even thought musically they have no real similarities. This would be because they are both simpler guitar oriented rock numbers and are the 2 weakest numbers on the record. Having said that, this song at least has the dignity to limit itself to just over 3 minutes unlike its predecessor. It is the basic rock 'n' roll number on the album with driving upbeat rhythms and some very clever vocal wordplay. All in all rather unmemorable but undeniably great and probably the song most likely to hit you first out of any on Side A. I just wrote 134 words on the song I couldn't write anything about. And have now added to it to make it over 150!!

Amazing.

STRANGER THAN FICTION (Masterpiece No.3): Ok. My friends have chastised me before about overhyping certain songs and making them underwhelming when they hear them. So if you won't hear this song and immediately agree regardless of what I say about it DO NOT READ THIS SECTION OF THE REVIEW . Stranger Than Fiction is the pinnacle of the 4 genius pieces on the album. Everything about it blows my mind. Therefore due to the length of its title we shall henceforth refer to it simply as 'the awesome'.

The central basis of the song is an orgasmic and amazingly simple MOOOG! riff done simply on 7 consecutive black keys.

I CAN EVEN PLAY IT!

Over this simplicity plays out a 7 minute (far longer when live)mini-opera of epic proportions, propelled by Wally Wilkinson's driving guitar lines and classically trained Emlyn Crowther's paradiddlicious drumming. The track contains hilarious chipmunk/duck vocals, a cleverly oversimplified profound section headed by Phil Judd's bizarre voice and with a truly amazing chorus which stands alone as the album's crowning glory and one of the real 'moments' of the whole genre.

TIME FOR A CHANGE: Stranger Than Fiction segues cleverly into this relaxing piece that give you a couple of minute to quickly duck off get dressed again. It is not one of the absolute highlights on the album and for the most part is a simple but beautiful Phil Judd ballad. However just when you've gone soft listening to the undoubtedly beautiful but perhaps not as awe inspiring piano section you are blasted with the second half of the song, a loud and long mellotron crescendo accompanied with one of Wilkinson's more bombastic sounding guitar solos.

MAYBE: Ahh this great song. One which I have known since buying the Spellbound compilation more than a decade before I knew of this album's existence in the first place. The album's lead-off single, Maybe is a simple and jaunty 3 minutes of pop fun. It offers a refreshing break from the intensity of the majority of this album and is easily the most accessible piece on the record. However it doesn't sacrifice any of the Split Enz artistic vision just for mainstream appeal. The song is genius in its horribly overjovial music and tempt telling what is for the most part a melancholy story about lost love. Wonderful and fun and although its not an absolute standout it is important to note that I had a phase of obsessive love for this song without which I would never have bought the album

TITUS: The B side to the Maybe single was this equally concise and somewhat bizarre piece. It follows much the same structure as Time For A Change in that it begins as a simple laid back number with 2 verses of vocals (in this case one each shared by Tim Finn and Phil Judd) before early in the second half it changes into a brilliant instrumental passage that is the tracks highlight. This makes sense as both tracks were composed solely by Phil (as opposed to the usual Finn/Judd co-op) But musically Titus is completely varied from Time For A Change which is essentially a relatively accessible piano ballad while Titus is a rather strange song based around Phil's unique acoustic guitar and an aquatic sound created from very subtle stereo panning before the second section is a wash of Woodwinds and Brass (synthesized and otherwise), Piano and Eddie's Organs (genital and otherwise).

SPELLBOUND (Masterpiece No.4): The final precious stone on the record is the revolutionary Spellbound. Its title is certainly apt enough as Phil Judd makes history by presenting is with the Maori strummed guitar on a pop song. The ORGASMTASTIC opening acoustic section then segues, via a somewhat off putting and genius series of single note hits, into the most weird and wonderful vocal performance of Mr Judd's life. The beautiful profound lyrics are backed by the ever present Maori acoustic, subtle and lovely piano and perhaps (along with Sweet Dreams off the next album) the most ingenious and unique usage of the Mellotron I've ever heard. The song fades out with 'tron reminiscent of The Beatles pioneering song Strawberry Fields Forever before leading into the albums stupid and pointless title track which ruins the entire effect of the finale. This song is the perfect album closer and it frustrates me oh so immensely to hear that pointless piece of shit tacked onto the end like a smelly turd.

MENTAL NOTES:

I've said all I have to say about this song.

Actually not really. I was being overly harsh on it before because I think Spellbound would be a really great album closer. But I have had this admittedly stupid and mostly worthless song for 10 years (on my trust best-of) and always enjoyed it and got a laugh out of it. Fact is people underestimate its cleverness, it would not surprise me at all if the frustration surrounding its ruinousness would be almost intentional. Its placement is very clever and it is very presence that gives Spellbound another fantastic quirk. Its just GAAAAAAAAAHODHA[JHJDAHOJAUDHA[JODA[JAGJGA[JG[AJDGAJDAOPOOBOB. Why does this song even exist? Why does life exist? Why do I bother? Screw this. I'm sitting here writing this review just to bludge off doing my uni homework .

The moral of this story is that Mental Notes is the greatest song.

Ever.

In the history of the universe.

Over and out.