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Split Enz - Time and Tide CD (album) cover

TIME AND TIDE

Split Enz

 

Crossover Prog

3.73 | 28 ratings

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ZowieZiggy
Prog Reviewer
2 stars I'm afraid that I won't share the optimism of my two fellow reviewers who rated this album with the masterpiece status.

It all starts poorly with the funky "Dirty Creature", but this might only be a one of a kind, who knows! Still, the opening number is supposed to be the most catchy and one of the best of an album, so I was prepared for the worse.

I won't say that this work is bad, but in all honesty, I can't find many interesting tunes on "Time & Tide". Melodies are average, music is simplistic, gone are the superb arrangements of their seventies output.

They are replaced with the synthetic sounds of the early eighties, but not even the fun new wave ones. Just a collection of easy listening tracks with no real flavour nor identity for the majority.

I can't really tell to whom this album could please. Definitely not the progheads, neither their early fan database I guess. So?

Crafted (at best) pop tunes like "Hello Sandy Allen" and "Six Months In A Leaky Boat " aren't many; but "Never Ceases To Amaze Me" is a pleasant trip back in their earlier catalogue and their so funny style (very much influenced by "10CC"). It is probably not a great song, but it brings you back to the craziness of "Mental Notes" (their debut album).

While listening to "Lost For Words", some similarities with "XTC" can be heard as well. This is for the positive side but the reggae-oriented "Small World" is unfortunately there to remind us that their most creative period is behind. The nadir of this album being reached during "Take A Walk" and the folkish Haul Away.

There is even an attempt to symphonic prog with the short instrumental "Pioneer". I have to admit that it is quite successful, but unexpected of course.

Even if Make Sense Of It is a quite correct closing number, the whole of this album sounds too average to deserve more than two stars.

ZowieZiggy | 2/5 |

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