Split Enz – Mental Notes
Officially the first Split Enz album (though the music on 1979’s Beginning of the Enz predates it by as much as three years), this is a promising collection from a group that would not hit its stride for a few years. It’s almost impossible to describe Split Enz in a way that the average American listener can understand, because there has never been anything like the Enz in the States. They’re definitely capable of rocking and even reaching into the heavy end of the spectrum, but most of all, their music is imbued with a whimsical wit quite unlike anything else and in their early work, they seemed to prefer a lighter approach with mild percussion, an electric or acoustic piano, an acoustic guitar and maybe an electric thrown into the mix. These guys had fun when they played, and it comes across in the music itself. The closest I can think of would be 10cc – and they’re from Britain! For an introduction to the Enz, I’d recommend the following year’s Second Thoughts much more than Mental Notes, which finds charm in its 
roughness, but suffers from a vocal style that sounds like a hundred-year-old man telling a story he’s told once too often. Still, this album is the home of one of my all-time favorite Enz tunes, Maybe, which never made it as a single according to what I’ve read (though I find that hard to believe). It’s hard to describe Split Enz, but easy to like them.
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- Walking Down a Road (5:26)
- Under the Wheel (7:49)
- Amy (Darling) (5:18)
- So Long For Now (3:19)
- Stranger Than Fiction (6:58)
- Time for a Change (3:46)
- Maybe (2:59)
- Titus (3:13)
- Spellbound (5:00)
- Mental Notes (0:33)
Released by: Msuhroom
Release date: 1975
Total running time: 44:71
This album begins with the first two songs written and performed by Tim Finn and Phil Judd, then known, along with a handful of comrades, as a new all-acoustic band in New Zealand called “Split Ends” (also the title of one of those songs). The very sparse sound present in most of the band’s first singles – gathered here on one album a few years after the fact – is haunting, particularly the mysterious “Spellbound”, the rather sad “No Bother To Me”, and the hysterical “Sweet Talking Spoon Song”. As the album goes on, the 
Tim Finn’s final album as a member of Split Enz in the studio is a bit uneven. Such Enz classics as Neil’s “Strait Old Line” and the well-known “Message To My Girl” – both revived on the later ENZSO album – came from this album, but there are very electronic and almost disco-esque tunes such as “Bullet Brain And Cactus Head” that I usually skip over. The underlying problem I have with Conflicting Emotions is the predominance of sequencers, drum machines and other synthetic elements – sure, the 
When I first heard “Giant Heartbeat”, “Hello Sandy Allen” and “Take A Walk” in 1990, I knew right then and there that this album was destined to be on my DNP album list. Where Second Thoughts was the greatest accomplishment of the Enz’ original lineup, Time & Tide was an amazing musical accomplishment for the ’80s Enz. Tim and Neil Finn were perhaps at their best balance with one another, and the considerably darker tone of some of the songs here were indicative that perhaps Split Enz was finally growing beyond the whimsy that had characterized them in the past. What a welcome evolution. Among the highlights here are Neil’s guitar work finally achieving the first hints of the intricacy to come later in his Crowded House material, some wonderfully unusual instrumentation, and Noel Crombie 
handling both the drums and other percussion duties with tremendous impact. Tim Finn has since commented that Time & Tide was the favorite album of the band members as well – is it any wonder? A must-hear! Also, a rare accolade for the album cover. Track down the LP and look at the back cover – one of the most innovative “band line-ups” you’ve ever seen awaits you.
This is the album which brought Split Enz their greatest hit in America, and as such seems to be the point of origin for many fans’ interest in the band, thus it becomes a default classic. But honestly, even in the 80s the band came up with better material than this. The Neil Finn hit “I Got You” and its very similar cousin “What’s The Matter With You” are memorable, as well as Tim’s classics “I Hope I Never” and “Poor Boy”, both of which were given orchestral treatment on the later ENZSO album. My 
personal favorite is the extremely silly “Nobody Takes Me Seriously”, an infrequently-remembered Tim tune. But much of the rest of the album, including a couple of bland instrumentals, is rather forgettable.