SEE YA 'ROUND

After the little inviting "Conflicting Emotions" was is possible for the band to get back to some more inventive and fine music? I guess not, unfortunately. "See 'Ya Round" is a combination of dull pop songs with little to no passion.

Disco beats like during "I Walk Away" or "Doctor Love" are tracks that are best to be avoided. Typical of the eighties, even if it was not easy for bands to succeed in their reconversion.

This album is just a succession of boring numbers, sounding almost all of the same stuff. But is this a surprise? I don't think so. The band reached his creative peak with their debut and consolidated until "Frenzy" in 79. After this album, the descent from below average ("True Colors", "Time & Tide") to poor ("Conflicting Emotions") was well on its way.

What we have here is a pitiful work. Even if lots of bands have had their ups and down, there is no question of ups in here. Only the downs are to be considered. And the Palme d'Or definitely goes to "One Mouth Is Fed". Press next.

Unfortunately, none of the songs presented here is captivating. Just a waste of time, really. For your own sake, you shouldn't bother with this album. The closing "Ninnie Knees Up" being the poorest one of all songs. But at this time, it is not possible to press next, or you would be brought back to the opening number, which, I'm sure, you would like to avoid.

Sad for a great band like SPLIT ENZ to finish with such a lemon, but finish with a lemon they did. Having started their career with an engaging blend of art rock and vaudeville, they added punk to their palette in the late 70s, and became one of the most memorable new wave bands in the early 1980s, with 'True Colours' and 'Time and Tide' matching the best of the movement. By 1984, however, they had shed everything but blandness, including their charismatic leader, TIM FINN. Younger brother NEIL helmed the band during this, its dying gasp, and was already thinking about his next project. Thus he had only five tracks ready for this release - but instead of doing the decent thing and retiring gracefully, the band added what they called 'experimental' (read: half-finished) numbers to make up the balance. No vestige of their art-rock origins remain: this is sixth-rate tunes dressed up to the nines in hurricane-force overproduction. Doesn't matter how much perfume you douse this stuff in, it still smells.

See Ya Round Enz, like a Lost Cat!

Split Enz were searching for a new sound in the mid 80s to end their career. They found their sound: a cat being run over by a lawnmower! Tim Finn got out while the going was good and the band still had a top 10 hit with Message To My Girl. As Tim sailed away into the sunset to pursue a dogged solo career, the great NZ/Aus band were left to stumble their careers into the studio to appease the record label; the result is a lackluster effort that had no singles worthy of serious marketing and a totally manufactured sound that was the worst of the mid 80s."See Ya Round" was a self prophecying farewell album and was a shocking way to go out. After the disappointing "Conflicting Emotions" this followup is so bad that compilations usually tend to ignore it as if it didn't exist and for good reason.

What went wrong?

The Enz transformed over the years from colourful costumed mannequins on acid to clean cut ladie's magnets. The pop 80s were inundated by Split Enz on the charts and we Australians heard ad infinitum the likes of I Got You and 6 Months on a Leaky Boat as a daily diet. Then they tended to fizzle out on subsequent albums following "Time and Tide".

First there was a very mediocre effort with "Conflicting Emotions" but this was followed up by the worst the Enz produced; "See Ya Round". The cheesy album cover with the band member's faces peeking out of silly cardboard characterisations was supposed to be pop art, instead it just comes across as poop art; flaccid unamusing drawings with an equally lifeless song list.

Is there anything salvageable?

I Walk Away was an attempt at a single and failed. Doctor Love has a catchy tune if you can get past the lyrics. One Mouth is Fed is a boring dance tune that was a live favourite of sorts. Lost Cat was a proggy instrumental with atmospheric cat sounds on the synth (best track on the whole dang album!). This track genuinely sounds like a cat stalking with weird bizarre synth effects and ascending bassline, one of the best instrumentals I have heard.

That's about it really. One intriguing instrumental and 10 manufactured pop slop throwaways. It is seriously devoid of inspiration and is not a cohesive work, rather sounds as though it were recorded in separate booths by each musician, and even then they sound as if they are bored with it. She's a must to avoid.