Music Reviews

So, are these guys the band formerly known as Crowded House? Formerly known as Split Enz? Or just two brothers psychoanalyzing one another and their oft-dysfunctional relationship in musical form? The entire album is performed by Tim and Neil Finn, relying mainly on acoustic guitar, piano and whatever percussion they could cobble together, with the exception of other musicians who play on “Kiss The Road Of Raratonga”. The resulting sound is very interesting, and may not be for everyone. If you’re accustomed to the usual slick production of Split Enz, Tim’s early post-Enz solo work, and the first three Crowded House albums, this stuff will surprise you! The production values, if that morsel of overused TV and movie jargon can be applied to music, are almost nonexistent. The percussion instruments, the performances, the vocals, and mix and everything are very garage-band-esque, very low-tech and retro without quite descending into the whole grunge clichè. In many places there is an obvious tape hiss in the recording which almost makes the music sound much older than it really is – an audio aging process, if you will. I’d compare most of this album to the un-Crowded House-like passages of Together Alone. The lyrics are strange, as is common when Tim and Neil write together. Tim’s words are often full of Maori cultural references, and both of them together weave references into their music that are known only to them, a common practice dating back to the earliest Split Enz songs on record. These guys are the beginning and end of two of the best and most undeservedly obscure bands on the planet…don’t expect straightforward textbook rock ‘n’ roll from them!

1. Only Talking Sense (3:04)
2. Eyes of the World (2:52)
3. Mood Swinging Man (4:07)
4. Last Day of June (3:18)
5. Suffer Never (4:00)
6. Angel’s Heap (2:53)
7. Niwhai (3:37)
8. Where Is My Soul (4:10)
9. Bullets In My Hairdo (3:01)
10. Paradise (Wherever You Are) (3:59)
11. Kiss the Road of Raratonga (3:26)

Released by: Parlophone
Release date: 1995
Total running time: 38:29

For years, it was a well-known fact that the Alan Parsons Project’s music has always been custom-constructed for the studio, and that the Project was strictly a studio entity. But the Alan Parsons Project just isn’t what it used to be. In some ways, this is good; in others, not quite so good. On the good side, returning for another round is Manfred Mann’s Chris Thompson, who did vocals on two of Try Anything‘s better tracks – the single “Turn It Up” and the much harder-edged “Back Against The Wall”. Not only does he do the singing duties on many of the past Project hits originally voiced by gravelly Lenny Zakatek, but he does a bloody good job of ’em. He sounds like he was born to sing “Psychobabble”. One of the album’s nice bonuses – originally the only reason I sprang for it but now one of many reasons – are three previously unreleased studio tracks, including the outstanding “You’re the Voice”, with Thompson again providing vocals; this song continues breaking new ground with unpredictable rythmic patterns, not unlike “Turn It Up” (though better). Possibly the greatest find on the album is the amazing medley of the instrumentals “Lucifer” (from the Eve album, my favorite Project of the 1970s) and “Mammagamma” (that vastly-overplayed, echoplexed, one-step-removed-from-disco instrumental you all remember from 1981’s Eye In The Sky). I never dreamed I’d hear a fresh twist on “Mammagamma” until I heard the band suddenly segue into that song’s string interlude via keyboard, whilst still retaining the light military beat of “Lucifer”. Wow! A must-hear for those who appreciate Parsons/Woolfson instrumentals. Still, there are drawbacks. No one can replace the voice on those songs which were originally sung by Eric Woolfson. Oh, they give it a game try, but it seems somehow wrong that another voice could sing those songs. It’s like trying to get past k.d. lang singing Orbison’s “Crying”, or for that matter, Bonnie Raitt trying her hand at “You Got It”. Other than that detail, though, this is one hell of an album. I highly recommend it for any Projectiles out there. The choice of songs is surprising in many places, and refreshing since it doesn’t always represent those tunes that oversaturated the radio airwaves in the late 70s and early 80s. Also surprising is that nearly every Project album is represented by at least one song, with only a couple of exceptions. Even a selection from the lovely 1976 Edgar Allan Poe album makes it onto stage (“The Raven”, complete with mesmerizing Vocoder-fritzed vocals). I also appreciate the audience, who seemed appropriately respectful and didn’t ruin things by clapping along (with the exception of the gleefully playful beat of “Lucifer”) or trying to sing along, two things that irritate me to no end on most live albums.

1. Sirius (2:25)
2. Eye in the Sky (4:55)
3. Psychobabble (5:22)
4. The Raven (5:39)
5. Time (5:08)
6. Luciferama medley of Lucifer & Mammagamma (4:56)
7. Old and Wise (4:49)
8. You’re Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned (4:18)
9. Prime Time (5:15)
10. Limelight (4:40)
11. Don’t Answer Me (4:13)
12. Standing on Higher Ground (5:30)

    New studio tracks:

13. When (4:13)
14. Take the Money and Run (6:18)
15. You’re The Voice (5:07)

Released by: BMG / RCA Victor
Release date: 1995
Total running time: 74:27

I hadn’t heard anything out of Brent since his awful second solo project, A Matter of Feel, when I found this album quite by accident in 1995. It arrived at a radio station being run in the same building where I worked, and though it qualifies as contemporary Christian, it wasn’t suitable for the station’s country-gospel format so they were glad to part with it. I found it an interesting switch from Brent’s previous material, but in retrospect, with his first two solo albums’ abundance of songs about alcohol abuse and so on, it’s not much of a surprise. There are three songs I have to single out as favorites: “One Love”, with its very well-arranged harmonies and some really catchy lyrics and music, the James-Taylor-ish “All Is Well”, and my favorite, “Let His Love Into Your Heart”, an acoustic guitar and piano piece that was composed by Bourgeois and guitarist Lyle Workman – the same two guys responsible for “I Don’t Mind At All” from the Yoyo album by Bourgeois Tagg. The lyrics and the music are beautiful, and the minimalistic arrangement is perfect. I highly recommend this one. My one peeve is the song “God Is Not Dead”, which sounds so similar to Todd Rundgren’s “Miracle In The Bazaar” from A Capella, it’s just uncanny. The two songs could be segued one into the other seamlessly…and the only clue would be that Rundgren is praising Allah in his song…

1. One Love (4:01)
2. A Little More Like Jesus (4:29)
3. All Is Well (4:02)
4. Total Surrender (3:46)
5. Restored (4:13)
6. Perfect Harmony (4:55)
7. Blessed Be The Name (4:41)
8. Let His Love Into Your Heart (4:30)
9. God Is Not Dead (3:34)
10. Come Home To Me (4:43)

Released by: Reunion
Release date: 1994
Total running time: 43:01

I was bound to like this soundtrack, especially since the movie in question was my favorite of 1995. I’m sure no one needs a brief note explaining what the movie was about, so we’ll get right to the music and the soundtrack. My biggest complaint with the soundtrack is not the movie soundbytes, but the fact that they’re occasionally mixed in with the music. There are some really good contemporary tunes (I would’ve gladly done without Hank Williams’ “Honky Tonkin'” but I loved the Mavericks’ rendition of “Blue Moon”, and then there’s The Who and Hendrix – quite an eclectic mix!), and the score is one of Horner’s best in a long time, though he is again guilty of borrowing from him previous works (I could swear I remember some of this music from the movie Glory). And it was a truly inspired touch to have Annie Lennox add some vocals to the end credits’ more modern synthesized passages. Despite the intrusion of the soundbytes on the music, the scenes themselves couldn’t have been better chosen, and of course one of them features that immortal historical moment, “Houston, we have a problem.”

1. Main Title (2:28)
2. One Small Step (dialogue – 0:43)
3. Night Train (James Brown – 3:26)
4. Groovin’ (Young Rascals – 2:26)
5. Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane – 2:55)
6. I Can See For Miles (The Who – 4:09)
7. Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix – 2:46)
8. Launch Control (dialogue – 0:32)
9. All Systems Go – The Launch (10:03)
10. Welcome to Apollo 13 (dialogue – 0:26)
11. Spirit in the Sky (Norman Greenbaum – 3:51)
12. House Cleaning / Houston, We Have A Problem (dialogue – 0:54)
13. Master Alarm (3:36)
14. What’s Going On? (dialogue – 0:51)
15. Into the LEM (4:18)
16. Out of Time (dialogue – 0:34)
17. Darkside of the Moon (4:49)
18. Failure Is Not An Option (dialogue – 0:23)
19. Honky Tonkin’ (Hank Williams – 2:43)
20. Blue Moon (The Mavericks – 4:01)
21. Waiting for a Disaster / A Privilege (dialogue – 0:29)
22. Re-Entry & Splashdown (8:53)
23. End Titles (7:01)

Released by: MCA
Release date: 1995
Total running time: 72:19

I’ll bet this one caught you way off guard, eh? Some of you may regard this as a definitively womany album, sort of a Fried Green Tomatoes of music, and I have to confess that I don’t have too many female artists in my music collection, but I’ve always found this album to be truly cathartic, particularly It’s “Too Late”, which, well, let’s just say the song has great personal significance to me and leave it at that. I’d been hearing the song for years during my “oldies” (ha!) radio gig before it even became significant to me in a deeply personal way, but it’s one of those things that you don’t understand until it lands right on top of you. Other familiar songs you might be looking for here include “I Feel The Earth Move”, “You’ve Got A Friend”, and “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman”. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

1. I Feel The Earth Move (2:57)
2. So Far Away (3:56)
3. It’s Too Late (3:53)
4. Home Again (2:30)
5. Beautiful (3:06)
6. Way Over Yonder (4:46)
7. You’ve Got a Friend (5:07)
8. Where You Lead (3:18)
9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (4:11)
10. Smackwater Jack (3:43)
11. Tapestry (3:12)
12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (3:49)

Released by: CBS
Release date: 1971
Total running time: 44:50

An entirely instrumental, world music-flavored album of music assembled for the unfathomably controversial film, this is quite different from most of Peter Gabriel’s other fare, though the result is undeniably stamped with his sound. Many of the more rhythmic tracks are well worth a listen, though the best piece on the album is the ethereal “With This Love”. Apparently Peter thought so too, including it in two forms – a contemporary arrangement and an entirely choral rendition which is hauntingly inspirational. But every moment of pleasure on this album is purchased with a moment of chaotic confusion, such as the seemingly random “Gethsemane” track. All in all, your tastes alone will determine whether or not you like this very eclectic soundtrack, though I’d recommend you have a healthy appreciation for instrumental music with an ethnic twist.

1. The Feeling Begins (4:00)
2. Gethsemane (1:23)
3. Of These, Hope (4:05)
4. Lazarus Raised (0:36)
5. Of These, Hope – reprise (1:06)
6. In Doubt (2:07)
7. A Different Drum (6:05)
8. Zaar (4:44)
9. Troubled (2:46)
10. Open (3:18)
11. Before Night Falls (2:16)
12. With This Love (3:36)
13. Sandstorm (2:55)
14. Stigmata (2:24)
15. Passion (7:36)
16. With This Love – choir (3:19)
17. Wall of Breath (2:25)
18. The Promise of Shadows (2:12)
19. Disturbed (3:07)
20. It Is Accomplished (3:30)
21. Bread and Wine (2:23)

Released by: RealWorld
Release date: 1989
Total running time: 65:53

Even the Moodies had to evolve with the times as synths and sequencers came into fashion, and this is the product of the evolution. Not unlike their contemporaries in ELO, the Moody Blues went just a little bit overboard in the electronics department with the help of new bandmate Patrick Moraz, but the band’s trademark songwriting salvages the endeavor by keeping the music in a recognizably Moody Blues vein. The singles “The Voice” and “Gemini Dream” came from this album, along with a couple of my favorite album tracks, “Talking Out Of Turn” and “22,000 Days”.

1. The Voice (5:11)
2. Talking Out Of Turn (7:17)
3. Gemini Dream (4:05)
4. In My World (7:17)
5. Meanwhile (4:07)
6. 22,000 Days (5:24)
7. Nervous (5:40)
8. Painted Smile (3:22)
9. Reflective Smile (0:36)
10. Veteran Cosmic Rocker (3:09)

Released by: Threshold
Release date: 1981
Total running time: 46:08

The album was my first exposure to Brent Bourgeois, and though it’s uneven in many places, it’s one of the last great breaths of pure pop music in the late 1980s. This was the second album for the combination of Bourgeois and fellow songwriter Larry Tagg, and also the last. And despite my affection for Bourgeois’ later works, Tagg wrote two of my favorite songs on this album, the joyous and well-harmonized “Best Of All Possible Worlds” and “Waiting For The Worm To Turn”. These two songs exude the best vibes of the catchiest Beatles and ELO tunes, while still bringing their own unique sounds to the mix. Bourgeois’ contributions include the somber and depressing “Coma” (about someone whose alcoholism has left him in – you guessed it – a coma), and the sleeper-hit single “I Don’t Mind At All”, a simple yet majestic statement in acoustic guitar and string quartet that made a brief showing on MTV at the time of its release. The latter was written by Bourgeois and guitarist Lyle Workman, who also collaborated on “Let His Love Into Your Heart” on Bourgeois’ 1994 contemporary Christian debut.

1. Best of All Possible Worlds (3:58)
2. Cry Like A Baby (3:25)
3. Pencil & Paper (4:03)
4. Out Of My Mind (4:02)
5. 15 Minutes in the Sun (3:46)
6. Waiting for the Worm to Turn (4:02)
7. I Don’t Mind At All (2:33)
8. What’s Wrong With This Picture (4:23)
9. Stress (4:13)
10. Coma (4:14)

Released by: Island
Release date: 1987
Total running time: 38:39

The Cat is, of course, Danny John-Jules, who plays the Cat character on Red Dwarf. “Tongue Tied” is a song which opened the final episode of the series’ second season in 1988; it took place in one of Cat’s dreams, and featured some very funny backing vocals from fellow cast members Craig Charles and Chris Barrie. Sadly, this CD maxi-single, released only in the U.K. and now available only through John-Jules’ fan club, is not that version of the song, but a re-recording of it minus John-Jules’ fellow cast members. Numerous remixes of “Tongue Tied” delve further and further into hip-hop and club stylings, and a so-called “kateoki” version is also included, a karaoke version with backing vocals, allowing you to be the Cat (if this is, in fact, what you really want to do with your life). Actually, the real treat here is John-Jules’ rendition of the Red Dwarf end credit song – also available in two mixes, one of which is rather cryptically labeled the “Dalek mix.” While I was a bit disappointed that the original recording of “Tongue Tied” wasn’t included – but after all, I suppose the sound quality of that version was just enough to pass muster on television – this new version of the Red Dwarf theme makes up for it. Even so, I only recommend this one to extremely die-hard Red Dwarf fans.

1. Red Dwarf theme – tongue tied mix (2:21)
2. Tongue Tied – meeow mix (5:00)
3. Tongue Tied (4:02)
4. Tongue Tied – Tabby Ranks edit (6:14)
5. Tongue Tied – kateoki mix (4:23)
6. Tongue Tied – pussy mix (5:26)
7. Tongue Tied – purrfect mix (5:26)
8. Tongue Tied – paws mix (5:16)
9. Tongue Tied – paws mix 7" single (5:16)
10. Tongue Tied – 7" single mix (3:51)
11. Tongue Tied – instrumental (4:22)
12. Red Dwarf – Dalek mix (2:15)

Released by:
Release date: 1993
Total running time: 53:59

I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest Kansas fan in the world. Oh, I like a lot of their singles, but most of the time I find their ramblingly long album tracks to be a little bit pretentious (oh boy, I know someone’s gonna shoot that comment right back in my face about ELO…incidentally, I tend to feel the same about Yes, so how’s that for pissing off the entire progressive rock fan world?), and all that organ …whew. I really have to be in a distinctly Kansas mood. But enough of that. This is a good one for those of us who don’t have the aural fortitude to handle a bunch of Kansas album tracks. It includes, naturally, “Dust In The Wind”, quite possibly the most atypical Kansas single of them all. Most people will remember “Point Of Know Return” (also on this album, naturally) and other albums’ singles such as the excellent “Carry On”, “Wayward Son” and the mind-blowing “Hold On”, and indeed many remember “Dust In The Wind”, but you have to admit it’s not formula Kansas. If only for this one mournful tune, I recommend this one to you…but you may find that, like me, you have to be in a distinctly Kansas mood.

1. Carry On Wayward Son (5:22)
2. Point Of Know Return (3:11)
3. Fight Fire With Fire (3:40)
4. Dust In The Wind (3:27)
5. Song For America (9:08)
6. Perfect Lover (4:19)
7. Hold On (3:52)
8. No One Together (6:57)
9. Play The Game Tonight (3:26)
10. The Wall (4:49)

Released by: Epic
Release date: 1984
Total running time: 48:18

For those interested in the Move’s single releases, there’s no better introduction than this. It features such classics – trust me, even if you’ve never heard of the Move before now, they were classics – as “Blackberry Way” (an atypically Beatle-ish tune from Roy Wood, which also turned out to be the Move’s first and only U.K. #1 single), the trippy “I Can Hear The Grass Grow”, the raunchy (and badly-mixed) “Fire Brigade”, and the first song ever played on BBC Radio 1, “Flowers In The Rain”. It’d be hard for me to pick a favorite out of all these. Some of the sound quality and mixing – again singling out “Fire Brigade” – are less than spectacular, but these songs do come from the late 60s and early 70s, and not everybody had access to Abbey Road Studios.

1. Blackberry Way (3:36)
2. Curly (2:45)
3. Yellow Rainbow (2:37)
4. I Can Hear The Grass Grow (3:00)
5. Fire Brigade (2:25)
6. Hey Grandma (3:14)
7. Kilroy Was Here (2:45)
8. Night of Fear (2:12)
9. Feel Too Good (9:33)
10. Brontosaurus (4:26)
11. Flowers in the Rain (2:24)
12. Walk Upon The Water (3:12)
13. Stephanie Knows Who (3:06)
14. Turkish Tram Conductor Blues (4:42)
15. Useless Information (2:51)
16. Weekend (1:46)
17. Cherry Blossom Clinic (7:42)
18. So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star (3:01)

Released by: Music Collection International
Release date: 1991
Total running time: 65:17

The only thing from this album that anyone seems to recall is the horrid remake of the Zombies’ “Time Of The Season”. That’s a pity, because there’s much better material here that never hit the radio airwaves, and none of it delves to the banality of the cover of the aforementioned ’60s tune. Most of the good stuff comes early on, such as the rough “The Real Thing”, bemoaning the lifestyle of the working father, and the western-tinged “Compromise” (which I suspect laments the fate of Bourgeois Tagg). Other high points are the rocking “Wild Child” and “Can’t Feel the Pain”, a beautifully harmonized duet with Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie. Another highlight is a song which I’d best refer to here as “Out Of Luck” since that’s what the disc label itself calls it, though the jewel box track listings add the “s” word to the title. I highly recommend the whole album!

1. The Real Things (4:18)
2. Compromise (3:57)
3. Dare To Fall In Love (4:05)
4. Can’t Feel the Pain (4:04)
5. Scene of the Crime (5:07)
6. Wild Child (4:17)
7. Evil Run Riot (4:07)
8. My Little Island (2:53)
9. Time of the Season (3:49)
10. Shit Out Of Luck (4:27)
11. A Long Way From Home (4:57)

Released by: Charisma
Release date: 1990
Total running time: 46:01

This album was rather quietly released with the support of the single “Countdown” which was a rather tame iteration of many staples of Buckingham’s Fleetwood Mac style. But despite that, it was one of the better songs on the album. For all the hoopla surrounding his departure from Fleetwood Mac in 1987 and all the immense talent he brought to both the Mac’s 70s/80s sound and his own previous solo work, this album, about five years in the making, was a bit disappointing. That said, Out Of The Cradle isn’t a total loss either. The opening track “Don’t Look Down” is much more exemplary of what I’m looking for if I listen to Lindsey Buckingham, and “All My Sorrows” and “Street of Dreams” come in close behind. One of the really neat things about this CD is that some of the songs have extended intros which are separate tracks. This may not seem like a big deal, but since I was working in radio when this album was released, I thought it was just incredibly handy (but it’s a real bugger if you’ve got a random or shuffle button on your CD player!). The final two tracks, a beautiful acoustic guitar instrumental cover of a Rodgers & Hammerstein number called “This Nearly Was Mine” (I honestly can’t say where the song comes from, though) followed by Buckingham’s own sentimental “Say We’ll Meet Again”, make me wish that he’d done more of the album in this style than trying to rekindle Fleetwood Mac vibes. One of my biggest gripes with the album is a song which sounds like a rough keyboard demo of “Big Love” from Buckingham’s last album with Fleetwood Mac. It’s a blatant attempt to make it sound like you don’t need Fleetwood Mac for the Fleetwood Mac sound (and I liked the Mac’s post-Buckingham Behind The Mask quite well, thank you). There are commercial considerations, of course – one must have reasonable sales from one album in order to make the next – but there are some artists who forego commercialism in order to be interesting and experimental. Lindsey Buckingham used to be one of those, but you’d hardly know it from listening to Out Of The Cradle.

1. instrumental introduction to Don’t Look Down (0:25)
2. Don’t Look Down (2:47)
3. Wrong (4:19)
4. Countdown (3:21)
5. All My Sorrows (4:01)
6. Soul Drifter (3:27)
7. instrumental introduction to This is the Time (0:41)
8. This is the Time (4:49)
9. You Do Or You Don’t (3:37)
10. Street of Dreams (4:28)
11. spoken introduction to Surrender the Rain (3:39)
12. Surrender the Rain (3:39)
13. Doing What I Can (4:05)
14. Turn It On (3:50)
15. This Nearly Was Mine (1:38)
16. Say We’ll Meet Again (2:28)

Released by: Reprise
Release date: 1992
Total running time: 51:14

I have to admit, I don’t like Kevin Costner in too many movies, but this is one of my two favorites of his (the other being JFK), and I like the music too, in a weird sort of way. In places, this soundtrack seems so sampled, I don’t know if it’s real instruments or synthesizers, yet in other places – such as my favorite tracks, “Death Theme” and “Four Friends” with their common saxophone part – the music is authentically organic. Overall, a fair album, though the two tracks above make it worth your while.

1. The Untouchables – end title (3:10)
2. Al Capone (2:55)
3. Waiting at the Border (3:46)
4. Death Theme (2:41)
5. On the Rooftops (2:33)
6. Victorious (2:09)
7. The Man With The Matches (2:46)
8. The Strength of the Righteous – main title (2:26)
9. Ness and His Family (2:45)
10. False Alarm (1:12)
11. The Untouchables (3:04)
12. Four Friends (2:51)
13. Machine Gun Lullaby (7:02)

Released by: A&M
Release date: 1987
Total running time: 39:42

As legend has it, this band’s unique sound (heard vividly on their sole big hit “In A Big Country”) came from the two lead guitars playing the same note simultaneously, evoking a bagpipe effect befitting the band’s proud Scottish origins. It was certainly a unique sound, and though Big Country has retained a cult following ever since then, this album contains the single that people probably remember most from the radio. “Fields Of Fire”, a lesser-known single, is also worth a listen – overall, it’s a very unique sound. Whether you’re in an 80s pop nostalgia mood, or you just really liked this very interesting sound, I think you’ll probably like Big Country.

1. In A Big Country (4:45)
2. Inwards (4:38)
3. Chance (4:25)
4. 1,000 Stars (3:54)
5. The Storm (6:21)
6. Harvest Home (4:21)
7. Lost Patrol (4:53)
8. Close Action (4:17)
9. Fields of Fire (3:32)
10. Porrohman (7:53)

Released by: Polygram
Release date: 1983
Total running time: 48:59

Truly outstanding work here, provided you can handle a solid hour of a string quartet (not difficult) and Elvis Costello singing (sometimes a bit grating). The song “Taking My Life In Your Hands” is amazing – yes, even the vocals. There are no “contemporary” instruments at all, though the Brodskys can really make their instruments do some amazing things. “Taking My Life In Your Hands”, “The Letter Home” and “The Birds Will Still Be Singing” stand out as my favorites, all rather mournful pieces which make the best of both the strings and the vocals. “Who Do You Think You Are?”, “Swine” and “Jackson, Monk and Rowe” bring some much-needed levity to the proceedings, but within the variety of songs there’s a cohesive and very unique concept. Highest recommendations.

1. Deliver Us (0:49)
2. For Other Eyes (2:55)
3. Swine (2:09)
4. Expert Rites (2:23)
5. Dead Letter (2:19)
6. I Almost Had A Weakness (3:53)
7. Why? (1:26)
8. Who Do You Think You Are? (3:29)
9. Taking My Life In Your Hands (3:20)
10. This Offer Is Unrepeatable (3:13)
11. Dear Sweet, Filthy World (4:18)
12. The Letter Home (3:11)
13. Jackson, Monk and Rowe (3:44)
14. This Sad Burlesque (2:47)
15. Romeo’s Seance (3:33)
16. I Thought I’d Write To Juliet (4:08)
17. Last Post (2:25)
18. The First To Leave (5:00)
19. Damnation’s Cellar (3:26)
20. The Birds Will Still Be Singing (4:27)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 1993
Total running time: 62:55

This was the first hint of the studio-polished Enz as well as the first glimpse of a much heavier, more electric sound to come. When this album was recorded, things were not going well for the band – they were stranded in England, broke, and shortly after their studio sessions, their instruments and equipment were lost in a fire just before a concert date in support of the new album. The resulting frustrations and tensions are evident on the music, which is harder-hitting all around. Neil Finn begins to make his voice heard on this album, which offers a preview of the band’s style in the 80s. The best bits from Frenzy include the Tim & Neil collaboration “Give It A Whirl”, the poignant “Stuff And Nonsense”, and the uncharacteristically heavy “Abu Dhabi” and “Mind Over Matter”.

1. I See Red (3:17)
2. Give It A Whirl (2:51)
3. Master Plan (3:09)
4. Famous People (2:53)
5. Hermit McDermitt (4:09)
6. Stuff and Nonsense (4:26)
7. Marooned (2:51)
8. Frenzy (3:03)
9. The Roughest Toughest Game in the World (3:43)
10. She Got Body She Got Soul (2:56)
11. Betty (4:43)
12. Abu Dhabi (4:32)
13. Mind Over Matter (2:57)

Released by: Mushroom
Release date: 1979
Total running time: 45:30

The band’s second album curiously rehashed several songs from their first, but beefed up and fine-tuned the group’s sound considerably and, including some new gems (many of them actually new recordings of the Enz’s earliest singles and live favorites), created a vastly superior album. The vocals are more straightforward than the old-man-telling-a-story approach used by Phil Judd on Mental Notes, and the entire group is in fine form, consistently cohesive for what would be the last time in several years. My only gripe – they should’ve rerecorded the catchy “Maybe” from the first album and scrapped “The Woman Who Loves You”. That would have made this quite possibly the most perfect album ever to emerge from the south Pacific, beating anything Men at Work or INXS could ever have dreamed of concocting…still, as it is, it’s on my DNP Album List!

1. Late Last Night (4:04)
2. Walking Down a Road (5:28)
3. Titus (3:16)
4. Lovey Dovey (3:09)
5. Sweet Dreams (5:08)
6. Stranger Than Fiction (7:06)
7. Time for a Change (4:07)
8. Matinee Idyll (129) (2:57)
9. The Woman Who Loves You (6:56)

Released by: Mushroom
Release date: 1976
Total running time: 42:11

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.

1. Walking Down a Road (5:26)
2. Under the Wheel (7:49)
3. Amy (Darling) (5:18)
4. So Long For Now (3:19)
5. Stranger Than Fiction (6:58)
6. Time for a Change (3:46)
7. Maybe (2:59)
8. Titus (3:13)
9. Spellbound (5:00)
10. Mental Notes (0:33)

Released by: Msuhroom
Release date: 1975
Total running time: 44:71