CONFLICTING EMOTIONS

After the high water mark that was Time & Tide, Conflicting Emotions came as a bit of a let down. Still prog pop as played by masters of the genre, but you could feel it was coming apart.

Some songs stand up as good as anything on Time & Tide - but the keyboards sounds tended more towards adult pop dance , and so diminish the overall quality of the album. No Mischief, I Wake Up Every Night, Conflicting Emotions, & Bon Voyage are all brought down by this dreaded instrumentation particular to the 80s. All are good pop, but they haven't aged well due to the overall sound.

Starting with the "proggiest", the songs Our Day and Bullet Brain & Cactus Head are lyrical serious looks at our children & the future & the then timely view of Reagan & Gorbachev (the thus named Bullet Brain & Cactus Head). The tone & melody stand out, but it's still a ways from T & T. One of Neil Finn's best melodies is found on Message to my Girl. For those who miss Paul McCartney's gift for sweet songs, this is a hit, spot on target. Rayner's keyboards on this one give it a ghostly longing that echoes Finn singing. Why this didn't wipe the charts clean, I'll never know. But it is one I would love for Neil to include in his concerts. Strait old Line reminds me of Take a Walk from T & T, but a bit less lyrical waxing about. Again, it recalls the previous album's strengths , but falls short in its' attempt.

So if you an Enz fan, this is still a well done offering. But for the prog heads amongst us, it's stay away, as most of its' charm lies in the melancholy pop approach that the group can do in its' sleep. A 4 for me, barely a 3 for this site.

THIS COULD BE HEAVEN OR THIS COULD BE HELL!

These are the first words of the opening number. And, gosh! The second part of the sentence describes this album brilliantly.

From the funky/jazzy "Strait Old Line" to the most disgusting synth music you could imagine ("Working Up An Appetite", "I Wake Up Every Night"), there is very little to expect from this album. Bright and creative music is definitely forgotten. One of the very rare bearable track is and "Bullet Brain.". Somewhat reminiscent of their "10CC" oriented music. But only one song is no big deal, right?

Split end is near, and everything here indicates this. This album is a real disaster. It is not even good pop music. Synthetic beats combined with poor backing vocals. All uninspired and dull.

Luckily, one can listen to the early albums of the band to get some reconciliation with them; but by no means is this one be appealing. There is no need to write a thousand words here. To listen to this album won't do you any good. A long press next exercise.

Sorry guys but this is really a painful album. Funny enough, the last track is called "Bon Voyage". If it was done on purpose, at least it indicates that the band has still the sense of humour because the trip proposed here is not good at all.

One star.

Slickly produced, inoffensive white-boy funk, dreamy pop bordering on muzak - someone's slipped the wrong album into the SPLIT ENZ sleeve. No; though notionally still part of the band, TIM FINN has wandered off in search of Greta Scacchi and a solo music and film career, leaving the rest of the band without sufficient eccentricity to sound like old-style ENZ. This album says more about what was to become CROWDED HOUSE than it does about SPLIT ENZ, despite the slightly weird 'Bullet Brain and Cactus Head', with 'Message to my Girl' being the most obvious precursor to the gorgeous, superslick pop that the NEIL FINN-led CROWDED HOUSE would produce. The rest of the album slips past in a blur of heavily-disguised mediocrity. Of most relevance is the fact that both FINN brothers had saved their best tracks for other projects: TIM scored with the pleasant 'Fraction too Much Friction', while NEIL already had his mega-hit 'Don't Dream it's Over' in his bottom drawer. There's nothing here approaching that. This is the sound of a band in terminal decline.