Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Split Enz - Dizrythmia CD (album) cover

DIZRYTHMIA

Split Enz

 

Crossover Prog

3.40 | 32 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

iluvmarillion
4 stars Two albums. Two misfires. Third time lucky. This time Split Enz get the production right in the studio, songs that are neither underproduced or overproduced and everybody plays well. Maybe it's because younger brother Neil Finn has joined the band and he has just the right sensibilities on guitar that suits the feel of the band. He's not as good a mandolin player as Phil Judd, but he has it all over him as a guitarist and he's not the aggressive lead guitarist that Wally Wilkinson is. A very good bass player in Nigel Griggs has replaced another very good bass player in Michael Chunn, while Malcolm Green is the superior drummer to Emlyn Crowther, he replaces. Noel Crombie contributes on percussion where needed.

The down side is the songs aren't as proggy as before. Tim Finn has a hand in writing all the songs except for Sugar And Spice. His influences are more sixties English Pop but he has Eddie Raynor to add a proggy flavor to the songs. Bold As Brass, with a writing credit to Robert Gillies, is a great rocker which opens the album. My Mistake is a lyrically clever song from Tim Finn. Parrot Fashion Love has some great boogie woogie playing on piano from Eddie Raynor and some of the best horns from Robert Gillies on a Split Enz song. Sugar And Spice is the odd song here, written by Phil Judd, but it rocks with some clever syncopated guitar runs and piano. Without A Doubt begins with an arpeggio sequence before it breaks into acoustic guitar and progresses into the main chorus of singing, mandolins, electric guitar and piano.

Crosswords is another clever Tim Finn song with some good harmonica and sax playing from Gillies. The jazzy Charlie mainly on the piano adds a light touch to the album, again with very clever lyrics from Tim Finn. Nice To Know begins ordinarily on drums then develops some interesting ethereal effects on keyboards from Eddie Raynor with a contribution on electric guitar from Neil Finn as well as Sax from Robert Gillies. Jamboree is a mini epic that reminds me of the misunderstood Syd Barrett song, Jugband Blues. It's not a song about madness in as much as the song IS madness. It's like a piece of creative art which is stretched like an elastic band until it snaps. If there is one definitive song that describes Split Enz, it is Jamboree.

Dizrythmia is one of the great underappreciated Spilt Enz albums. It gets more spins from me than any other Split Enz album.

iluvmarillion | 4/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this SPLIT ENZ review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.