SEE YA 'ROUND

NEW WAVE PROG-RELATED PROTO NEO PROG. Bye bye Tim, well at least until a year later when he joined Enz for a farewell tour.Orginally planned to be an EP with just the songs from side 1, the rest of the band decided to contribute a side two with another Neil Finn song, More than half of this album are Neil Finn songs the rest every member having their own song including for the first time a Noel Crombie piece (Ninnie knees up) very silly and very proggy percussion driven instrumental but I don't think its that great but it still fits in as an Enz song and was quite good live, and a Nigel Griggs piece Adz which merges with Eddie's track before it which isquite good and sounds very proggy. Again the songwrinting by Neil Finn is of high quality, but I can honestly say their is very little to appeal to a prog fan except for the usual Eddie Raynor song - Lost Cat which could quite comfortably fit on Brian Eno's Another Green World. I think overall thought the band suffers without Tim, whom had jump shiop for a solo career. According to Neil Finn this album was a disgruntled effort by the boys to prove to Tim Enz could carry on without Tim (because they were quite irritated by Tim leaving, but nothing really serious mind you after all Tim and Neil are brothers), so wisely the guys called it a day after this album and went on a final farewell tour. I quite like I Walk Away but only 10% of it would be considered prog (the weird violin and Neil's dark cry) One mouth to fed is a great piece it reminds me at places of the song Half Past One on the Can album Landed, Years go by is also prog pop I can't stand the Paul Hester song This is Massive, Hester (whom you may of heard of in Neil's band Crowded House) had only joined Enz just after Conflicting Emotions and so the song really has no place on this album, Hester was not around in the proggy days like the other guys and it really shows on that song, it fits on this album like a Noel Redding song on a Hendrix album, its Aussie rock song (after al lthe late Paul Hester was an Australian) so it fits more on an Aussie rock album like Inxs or Chisel.I can't believe the sticker on the remaster had this song with I Walk Away on the sticker infront of the album. Only fans of Aussie rock will like that stupid song. Kia Kaha (Maori for "be strong"-...I think) is a great song complete with a haka (kind of a war chart and dance - anyone familiar with the All Blacks rugby team will know what I mean) and ranks with Neils better songs, and it ends with the aforementioned Noel Crombie piece Ninnie Knees Up. Their is a bonus track on the remaster Last Exit recorded as a single with a dreadful music video (fortunately not on their DVD) while Tim was in the band between Tim and Tide and Conflicting Emotions perhaps the worst song Tim has ever written, it does not really help with rating this album. I feel their are songs worth investigating for the Enz fan, and I do think this is superior to Conflicting Emotions. But as I said I think it was sensible to wind the band down after this album,Tim was crucial to Enz, so Neil decied to pursue a new idea, which became Crowded House, which got the song on their debut album "Don't Drewam its Over" at number two hit on the U.S. charts, which is kind of ironic since all those years Enz had worked hard with very little success to penertrate the US market (only a small cult following) and then Neil forms his own band a yearafter Enz farewell tour later and gets two top twenty songs on the charts. An ok album superior to Conflicting Emotions by the fact its more focussed and more proggy and Neil is still very much inspired in his songwriting, some good tracks and some duds but I don't think its for everyone so I think a 2.5 good but not essential while at the same time only appealing to fans, I know that is a contradiction but wavering between the two. I know some people may very well like this album a lot while others will have no time for it. 2.5 but is it really a four?....