Split Enz

I don't expect to be this to be a popular poll flooded with responses, considering this band's only prog-period spans the first two albums (maybe three) with everything after shifted to a pop/new wave direction.  On top of that the band's backcatalog has been MIA (domestically, here in the US) for years. 

For anyone else who has an ounce of fondness for this great New Zealand band I'd like to hear your thoughts.  Also, if you have a favorite song by them what would it be? 

My album vote goes to Time and Tide, not from their prog period, but their best crafted album IMO.

My fave song is "I Got You" for it's insanely good chorus.

Any Colour You Like wrote: Mental Notes, pretty weird, but charming.

With Phil Judd in lead of the songwriting in those early years he definitely gave the band its most surreal and oddest songs.

30 years after I discovered it, I still find almost all of Split Enz's repertoire wonderful, fresh and original. I feel lucky that in Canada, at least in the early 80s, the band was quite popular and their music was not in short supply. As I gradually acquired all of their albums, I alternated between my preference for their highly innovative so-called prog rock phase to their quirky yet catchy New Wave period.  On balance, both periods were unique and amazing.  From their more prog rock oriented material, Stranger than Fiction, Walking Down a Road, Titus and Late Last Night  were among my favourites. Whatever the ratings on this site say, the songs on Second Thoughts (the UK Mental Notes) had superior production values (in part thanks to Roxy Music's Phil Manzanara) and musicienship than their versions on the Australian Mental Notes debut.  Even during their more well-know period, they kept something of of their prog-rock roots by maintaining an originality in their more mainstream pop-rock material, and continually exploring different pop styles and melodies.  Time and Tide is my favourite album from that period (competing with Second Thoughts in my affection), while some my top songs are their Canadian hits: Hard Act to Follow, I Got You, One Step Ahead, 6 Months in a Leaky Boat and Dirty Creature, as well as Poor Boy and Make Sense of it.  In between these two periods, there were also wonderful songs like My Mistake, Semi-detached, and Stuff and Nonsense.      

Mental Notes is a little gem

Pleased to see my poll question got unexpectedly revived.

Welcome Enz fans!

catfood03 wrote: Any Colour You Like wrote: Mental Notes, pretty weird, but charming. With Phil Judd in lead of the songwriting in those early years he definitely gave the band its most surreal and oddest songs.

Agree here.  By the way, check out Phil Judd's most recent solo album, "Love is a Moron", it's fantastic.

Phil has unfortunately done some stupid things in recent years (stalking an underage girl), but that aside, he's an intriguing musician, singer, and performer.

I voted for Mental Notes btw... I'm not really much of a fan of the band, but "Under the Wheel" and "Spellbound", two of Judd's songs from that album, are absolutely amazing.

long time ago my friend was a huge fan of this band ... I remember I liked it too, but I don't have any idea what album that was. Need to check their albums ...

True colours is their classic though Corroboree is terrific too

* In response to "Iluvmarillion": Interesting perspective. No doubt, Mental Notes is a great album and perhaps deserves more credit by virtue of its originality. It has been years since I have listened to it, so I should try to do so again.  Of the tracks re-produced on Second Thoughts though, I remember preferring only the original version of Titus. Of course, aside from the quality of production (which is not fundamentally a reflection of the quality of the music itself), it's really a question of personal taste which are the better versions. I suspect we generally tend to prefer the versions of songs (or the version of the band) which we first discovered and fell for. However, Second Thoughts also includes the additional gems, Late Last Night, the Woman Who Loves You, Matinee Idyll (though here I prefer the original 129) and Sweet Dreams, making it an entirely perfect, magical experience (for me at least).

Edited by filster8 - March 31 2012 at 22:16