Split Enz

Split Enz – Mental Notes .5 (almost four)

I was always a bit confused whether this was the first album or would it be the infamous The Beginning Of The Enz would hold that honour. In either case, this is among the first few records that are likely to interest the progheads, as opposed to their mid-period early 80’s, when the had regressed and became a new wave electro-pop group. This group is mainly the works of a duo Tim Finn (vocals and piano) and Phil Judd (vocals and guitars) which shared most (if not all the songwriting credits), but interestingly enough neither were lead instrumentalists since Wilkinson and Rayner held top solo slots on guitars and keyboards respectively. SE is a septet, but outside  a percussionist, there are no wind instruments to spice things up, but their style is sufficiently eclectic, that there is no real need for it.

The music is a relatively good, inventive art rock with a fairly noticeable pop inspiration. Somewhere stuck between Rundgren’s Utopia and the Queen, 10 CC, sharing a bit the frenzy, spastic and silly world of those. But if the music has a solid pop vein and none of the group members seem to be ultra virtuoso at their respective instruments, there is plenty of place for musical interplay and the frequent use of a mellotron often gives a cool symphonic edge to their music. In this regard, the almost 8-min Under The Wheel is probably one of the highlights, especially if you enjoy weird screechy crazy vocals (ala Family’s Roger Chapman). This track could’ve almost been written and played by Gabriel-era Genesis, because the guitar does resemble a certain Steve at times. Another very interesting tune for progheads is the almost 7-min Stranger Than Fiction with the strange and spooky birdsong ambiances, and bridging directly to the next poppier Time For A Change.

Other (shorter) tracks like Amy or So Long For Now are poppier even if there interesting twists and the Maybe and short Titus tracks all present plenty of proggy moments to satisfy most of us. Spellbound is another crazy beauty even if by the end of the album, the Chapman-vocals are getting a tad tiresome. 

Clearly, Spilt Enz was on a roll as they would be until the end of the decade, pumping a bunch of good popish Art Rock, but sadly their regression into the next decade is one all progheads are aware of since it happened to some of the legends of the prog movement. But in the meantime, we are left with a string of albums that are, if not essential, very worthy of the proghead’s attentions. And among this string of albums, this one is maybe the most interesting one (but not the only one) and it could fit as perfect intro.