Ah, Split Enz is your gateway into the master pop songwriter, Neil Finn through Split Enz, which was the band he spent his early career with his brother Tim. Then he went on to have an incredibly successful career with his follow-up band, Crowded House. Then after that a great solo career (and a stint with Fleetwood Mac!) I reiterate, Neil finn is one of the music world's best, underrated songwriters. For Simple Minds, check out History Never Repeats and Message to My Girl His brother Tim is also a strong songwriter, check out their song Six Months on a Leaky Boat. Then you need to dive deep into Crowded House.
OMG… You’ve found Split Enz! I absolutely love those guys. Their catalog is impressive, but IMO their most consistently solid album is Time and Tide. Eddie Rayner is their Tony Banks, and not in a bad way. 😎 Thanks for the reaction, Justin! More please!!
One of New Zealand's finest bands. They started as a prog rock band led by Tim Finn and Phil Judd. When Phil left, Tim recruited his younger brother Neil and they became a strongly new wave band. Neil later went on to found Crowded House. Keyboardist Eddie Rayner was the band's secret weapon. Lots of fine songs - "I Hope I Never", "Poor Boy", "Six Months in a Leaky Boat", "I See Red", "Message to My Girl", and deep cuts like "Iris", "Things", "Ghost Girl", and "Giant Heartbeat"... for their earlier proggy sound, try "Charlie" or "Walking Down a Road" - enjoy!
Always loved this one, great rhythmic energy, and it had IMO the "feel" of a good 60s pop record. It was a big MTV hit although it only went to #53 in 80. The band was from New Zealand and was led by two brothers with the last name Finn.
Split Enz is a fun band. You should check out "One Step Ahead" and the full version of "Six Months in a Leaky Boat". Another fun band from that era may be "Hair Cut 100" and the song "Love plus One".
The verses are in a minor key, while the chorus is in a major key. The video adds to the mysteriousness by giving it a "Night Gallery" feel. "One Step.Ahead" was also another hit by them, off their album "Waiata." Check it out!
Split Enz is a Kiwi group but the Finn brothers (primarily Neil who now tours with Fleetwood Mac) were also later a part of Crowded House, A Kiwi-Australian band. Both bands have plenty of great songs.
"Message To My Girl " and "Take A Walk" are two underappreciated classics by the Split Enz. Written and sung by Neil Finn who went on to form Crowded House. There are so many varied classics in Da 'Enz catalogue.....
Split Enz were a great band from my youth. They were incredibly odd at times but always clever and often catchy as hell. Neil Finn joining the band really triggered them finding a wider audience. You may know him also from Crowded House.
Love Split Enz more than Crowded House. Can’t wait til you get to “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” and “Dirty Creatures”. Actually, Crowded House’s album “Woodface” is nearly perfect, I think because it included Tim Finn.
Woodface is indeed nearly perfect! Both Finn Brothers, and some of their best writing! I'd also highly recommend those albums done as simply The Finn Brothers, especially Everyone is Here from 2004. Their songwriting chops evolved over the years, and their harmonies always sparkle. Oh, and thanks for the shoutout, Justin! I did a double take when I heard my name!
I love 'Woodface' but it's very much two albums joined together. It started out as a Finn Brothers project before morphing into a regular Crowded House album. For me, Crowded House's finest hour was their fourth album 'Together Alone'. It's much more experimental, slightly darker in tone and saw them working with Youth (from the band Killing Joke) as the producer instead of Mitchell Froom. It still has some fantastic songs on it as you'd expect from Neil Finn, especially 'Distant Sun'. If I recall correctly, Tim does sing backing vocals on a couple of tracks too.
Woodface and Together Alone are both great albums, but to me Crowded House's crown jewel is Temple of Low Men. In particular, "Into Temptation" gets me every time.
Neil and Tim Finn were in this band before they were in Crowded House. The "True Colours" LP was cool to look at, it had laser cut shapes on the vinyl, there's a picture of it on the Wikipedia page. I was stationed in the UK when this came out and got to hear them in concert on the BBC radio. They introduced their song 'I See Red' saying "It's one of the true colours."
Glad you've got to Split Enz! So much great music to discover. Tim Finn, sometime member of Crowded House, formed this band with Phil Judd in their home country of New Zealand in the early seventies and they released several progressive/art rock type albums. They used to have very stylised suits and hair-dos to match too! Tim's younger brother Neil (who sings lead on 'I Got You') later joined the band as well and steered them in a more new wave / poppy direction. This is one of my favourite new wave singles of my youth. Great energy and I love the use of synths. Like you I always enjoy the sense of paranoia in the verse and how that contrasts with the chorus. A classic. When Split Enz split 😉in 1984, Neil would go on to form Crowded House who were even more commercially successful, with Tim joining them for their huge-selling 'Woodface' album. Neil and Tim have also released a couple of acclaimed albums as The Finn Brothers. ps - the video for this song is a fun watch. It features Neil standing in a room singing the song with the other band members performing in a framed picture on the wall behind him. The framed picture animates when he sings the chorus but goes still when he sings the verses. At the end of the video he's in the picture with the band.
Welcome back down to the Antipodes (Australia and New Zealand) Lovely surprise to see this song come up - memories of my teen years and listening to Split Enz on Countdown (Local Television Pop music show)
Saw Split Enz in London way back in 1978....I think 🤔....maybe '79...anyway my lasting memory is of one of the Finn brothers playing a solo on the.....electric spoons!!!
Poor Boy is my favourite song of theirs. It was a staple on the radio in my HSC year at school. That schizo character in their songs remind me of Madness who were a contemporaneous ska band. The synths remind me of Devo too.
The juxtaposition of tone between the verse and chorus reflects the theme of the lyrics - the uncertainty of the early days of love. Swinging wildly between girding yourself for the worst, and sheer exuberance.
Hitting up the obscure NZ bands again, huh? Awesome. I personally dig their earlier much artier work rather than the later more polished stuff... but that's like choosing between Chocolate and Strawberry icecream: both are delicious. But yeah: it's a solid track to start with for sure. I'd suggest jumping forward two albums with My Mistake or Bold as Brass from 1977's Dizrythmia, or two albums into the future to 1982 with Time and Tide: maybe the songs Dirty Creature or Six months In A Leaky Boat from that. Shout out to Nigel Griggs on the bass. Absolutely love his tone and vibe on basically any track.
Nice reaction, Justin! I'm so happy that you're delving into Split Enz! My favorite of theirs is Message to My Girl. It's a really lovely song. As many have said, Neil Finn from this band went on to form Crowded House, which would another great group to check out.
Like Genesis and various members of Yes and King Crimson, Split Enz and the Finn brothers made a HUGE move from early pre-Neil Finn prog-rock masterpieces like "Gormenghast" to stuff like Crowded House... when the first Crowded House album (also a masterpiece) came out, I had heard nothing like it. Probably going to go listen to it again now.
An insightful estimation of this band Justin. Their earlier albums certainly were off kilter. I did recommend once before Under the wheel off their first album and this will show you a very quirky, progressive side to them that you sensed.
I understand they came from an Art Rock/Pop background but skewed New Wave like a lot of art rock/pop bands (is just seemed a natural home for many of those oddball bands). Also consider "I see Red" (The video shows their devo-esque similarity) and "6 months in a leaky boat". As others have pointed out, the Brothers Finn who are the creative core of the band are low key musical legends, later becoming the core of Crowded House (who were even bigger world wide) and even have a "Solo" Album of just the Brothers which is a nice listen.
Great reaction JP! Being a forever fan of Crowded House - it was a natural progression to the band that came before for Neil Finn - Split Enz. This was indeed a hit here in Canada. Quirky, weird, but excellent - all the things that translated to Crowded House later. Neil was cutting his teeth as a songwriter here. LOVE the track. Cheers.
Wow, this was the first song that I ever heard from the Finn brothers in all their incarnations. This is a most rewarding rabbit hole! I see Neil and Tim as the successors to the Beatles in regard to intelligent, sophisticated pop music. Whether it’s Split Enz, Crowded House, Finn Brothers or their solo work it’s all great. It has kept me entertained for nearly 50 years, I still jump on each new release and rare tour event. Go J P you can’t go wrong with these guys!
The farther back in time you go with their albums, the proggier and more experimental they get. It's all worth exploring. Every single song. As others have metioned, Time And Tide is probably the best intro album to the band. Love it. I am also a big fan of their earlier album Dizrythmia. Very different.
New Wave / Alt Pop for sure! My favorite track is "Nobody Takes Me Seriously". For years it was a mystery track on a mix tape, until the Internet finally matured. :)
So excited to see you hear Split Enz! Love them along with Crowded House. Split Enz’s song Message to My Girl is what I consider a perfect song. Looking forward to seeing you dive a little deeper into their catalog,
This is actually a good album - one of the few like it I got into when it came out, apart from The Police and The Cars (which were a cut above, of course). Somehow I always associate it with Argybargy by Squeeze, probably just because they came out and were on my turntable at the same time, as I sought out changes of pace from the fading prog scene. I think you'll like it.
As others have said, which I'll echo, "Dirty Creature" and/or "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" and then maybe a Crowded House song. Their knack for melody is as good as it gets. Someone also mentioned Haircut 100. That's a great suggestion. Take care Justin.
Loved this New Wave band and saw the brothers front for The Cars then down the road in Crowded House. How Can I Resist Her, Shark Attack and Nobody Takes Me Seriously Anyway off True Colours are fun but later they put out One Step Ahead, Hard Act to Follow and History Never Repeats. Great stuff!
They have so many great songs and were largely reformed as Crowded House. “Dirty Creature,” “Hello Sandy Allen,” “History Never Repeats,” “One Step Ahead” and “Iris” would be some of my recommendations for further listening.
This band during the late 70’s had the mix of the velvet underground with some of the punk rock sound mixed together. Completely a 360 when they formed Crowded House. It was popular that time such as Blondie, The Cars, etc. formed it into a pop sound just before new wave became popular. If you listen to early Duran Duran, The Ramones they have similarities between each of these bands back then.
Love that you got to Split Enz. As others have said try the amazing Pioneer/Six Months in a Leaky Boat. One transitions into the other. The Finn brothers are master song writers.
New Zealand music royalty. Off kilter is a good descriptive - early Enz is very avant garde with extreme makeup and costumes - their evolution is something to behold. This era of Kiwi music was awesome from the radio friendly pop hits of artists like 'DD Smash', 'The Dance Exponents' and 'The Mockers' to the more indie groups/university bands from the likes of the Flying Nun label, like 'The Chills', 'The Tall Dwarfs', 'The Bats', 'The Clean'...OMG the list goes on. Growing up as a teenager in NZ in the 80's was an experience lol. As a taste I'd love to suggest Headless Chickens 'Gaskrankinstation'.
Fantastic band, with tons of great songs! Essentially they were the precursor to Crowded House, as Neil Finn was a writing/performing member of Split Enz, and then went on to form Crowded House. By the way, Neil wrote this particular song. I saw both Split Enz and Crowded House in concert in the 1980s. Awesome shows!!! Other superb Split Enz songs to check out: - What's the Matter with You - I Hope I Never - Hard Act to Follow - One Step Ahead - I Don't Wanna Dance - Iris - Clumsy - Dirty Creature - Never Ceases to Amaze Me - Small World - Take a Walk - Pioneer / Six Months in a Leaky Boat - Message to My Girl
The original lp was laser etched and looks like a rainbow in the light. Also, the cover came in colors for the background. Yours is red mine is blue. The other 2 are purple and yellow.
If I remember correctly, there was a geometric design, similar to the album cover, laser-etched on the vinyl record! Could be wrong, haven't seen it in decades. ;-]
Yeah, you pretty much nailed that. While they were chart monsters in NZ during their heyday, they often jumped back and forth between radio-friendly new-wave pop and avant garde art-pop, I guess you could say "Oingo Boingo's overseas cousin". Even a lot of their other radio-friendly singles rode a very fine line and constantly risked alienating the general audience, but they always somehow managed to keep everything in check. They're an incredibly intriguing rabbit hole. Songs like Message To My Girl and One Step Ahead are pop *masterpieces*. Timeless, classic, and awe-inspiringly beautiful while feeling seemingly effortless.
Check out the actual video of this song. It's stars an adorable 21 year old Neil Finn. I got to see Crowded House in a smaller venue and Man did Neil make the girls swoon.
A great NZ band. The Finn brothers Tim in this band and later Neil joined. Neil would later create the band crowded house and auusie band lead by NZ (which Tim later joined). Both, especially Neil has a bit of that McCartney style and magic. Worth getting into them.
I'd first heard this band's name already in '82, when I was 12, but it was only 30 years later that I finally heard an actual song of theirs (THIS one), after I'd moved from Germany to New Zealand, where 'the Enz' originate from and the Finn brothers are regarded as national music icons. 'I Got You' can still be heard a lot everywhere here today! Not a bad one, but I like other Split Enz songs way better: 'Six Months In A Leaky Boat', 'Shark Attack', 'I See Red', 'Message To My Girl' and also earlier stuff like 'Jamboree' and 'Spellbound' 😊
FINALLY!!! Finally you have yourself opened the door to an astonishing universe of great compositions, silly lyrics, a big amount of querkiness and kinkiness and uniqiness (hehe, sorry, in good mood today). For getting a better understanding watch one of their live concerts of that Era (Or the Album "Enz of an 'Era", haha). Ok, serious. Try the following link, after getting used to the bad video quality, you will love it. Enjoy :) Also check out the follow-up band "Crowded House" after they SPLIT up (reunion in 2006, nice live show, too). In the ENz you get from both benads and all Neil Finn / Timm Finn solo or brother works around 20 studio albums of finest song quality!
Ah Split Enz!!! A very goofy band. You started with their most popular song which probably is the first song I heard from them. I hope you listen to more of them. My favorite album of theirs is "Time and Tide". It perfectly blends their pop elements with their goofiness. I see several comments suggesting "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" from that album, if you do that song, play "Pioneer" with it as they go together. "Pioneer" is a short beautiful instrumental that leads into "Six Months in a Leaky Boat". Neil Finn wrote and sung "I Got You", he brought the pop hooks to Split Enz. He later became known as the leader of Crowded House which you reacted to their most famous song "Don't Dream It's Over". I always hoped you would go back to them by reacting to the "Woodface" album or the "Together Alone" album
This is relatively late in what had until then been a fairly kaleidoscopic career. The album is full of solid material, though for me the stand-out track is Tim Finn's I Hope I Never, as powerful a vocal performance as you could wish for.
Hi Justin. Dave from London. You're The Voice! Like you, I want to hear what else Split Enz have, as I only know this UK hit single. I'm surprised I haven't delved deeper, as I'm a big fan of the Finn brothers' later band, Crowded House. P.S. my song ref You're The Voice is by Aussie singer John Farnham, and I always thought that was the biggest selling single in Australian history (There's Kylie too, of course). C'mon, it's their unofficial national anthem!
Yeah Split Enz! 🔥One Step Ahead - as others say here - is good.. haven't heard that one in a long time! I Got You tends to be the one that turns up on 80s compilations, especially those that were big in the 90s.. because I guess in the 90s we were already nostalgic for the 80s. ;)
Split Enz is definitely on the art pop spectrum - this is one of their most commercial. They also often have a lot of humor in their music. To get the view on their more eclectic roots, check out Sweet Dreams (Official Video)... and please watch the video, you won't be disappointed!
Great first song choice, but they have a pretty deep rabbit hole. "One Step Ahead", "Six Months in a Leaky Boat", "I hope I never", and "Message to my Girl" are well represented in many of my 80's playlists and I highly recommend you check them out.
Split Enz, legend! Ah...The Finn brothers...will lead you to Crowded House. Fantastic writers and musicians! You should have a listen to Message to my girl.
Dirty Creature is an amazing track, about depression. The band is really unusual, there is nothing quite like them - and this track is their most straight down the line track they ever did. (Great though).
Off the top of my head, from this album two songs worth adding to this would be Shark Attack, and The Choral Sea (instrumental) - both having quite a lot of Vooom. Yes, this was one of the hits from that album (and constructed to do that job). Beyond this, I don't know them that well, but can recommend Six Months in a Leaky Boat and another one whose name has just this very moment decided to slip away, and now elude me. Early Split Enz is a quirkier band. My favourite New Zealand song is *Don't Fight it Marsha ... * by *Blam Blam Blam* , but that's largely because it has the lines, "and I want you to be happy/ But I'd rather that you were still with me ... " ua-cam.com/video/91Dt_0bPOTI/v-deo.html
Although I love the New Wave music of Gary Numan and Ultravox, and although my Canada produced many of the best New Wave bands of the 80s, Split Enz wrote the most consistently catchy and imaginative songs of the decade. And then, kid brother Neil continued the great streak with Crowded House, on his own and as a duo with big brother, Tim. Tim's solo albums were very popular too, but their Poppy sound often felt too forced, for my taste. However, his eponymous solo album was brilliant, as great across both sides as anything that Neil ever released. Check out Tim Finn's "How'm I Gonna Sleep Without You" and the fake ad jingle video clip from the early Eric Roberts movie, "The Coca Cola Kid". Crowded House: "When She Comes" builds to a tremendous climax, while "Message to my Girl" is one of the best Pop songs of the past 40 years. Neil solo: try "Try Whistling This". After a few years of watching music reactions on YT, I appreciate how you've grown and how sophisticated your analyses have become.
It was a real treat to see this album for the first time with the laser etched vinyl record inside. I posted a video for those who want to see what it does when you play it. ua-cam.com/video/LZCxjmkYUPw/v-deo.html The song follows the traditional a-b-a-b-c-a-b. It makes me wonder if this was the blueprint for Genesis' song "Abacab". Also the Split Enz album cover is geometric shapes spelling their name, and there were a variety of printed covers with several different color schemes. Genesis did the same variety of colors with their Abacab album covers.
Message To My Girl is a God damn pop masterpiece. And I'm not being hyperbolic in the slightest - it's the kind of song that artists *wish* they'd come up with.
Ah, Split Enz is your gateway into the master pop songwriter, Neil Finn through Split Enz, which was the band he spent his early career with his brother Tim. Then he went on to have an incredibly successful career with his follow-up band, Crowded House. Then after that a great solo career (and a stint with Fleetwood Mac!) I reiterate, Neil finn is one of the music world's best, underrated songwriters. For Simple Minds, check out History Never Repeats and Message to My Girl His brother Tim is also a strong songwriter, check out their song Six Months on a Leaky Boat. Then you need to dive deep into Crowded House.
100 % agree.
Simple Minds?
Great advice
"One Step Ahead" is my favorite Split Enz song, so I recommend it for next up!
Agreed on “One Step Ahead” - “History Never Repeats” is another gem on that album.
OMG… You’ve found Split Enz! I absolutely love those guys. Their catalog is impressive, but IMO their most consistently solid album is Time and Tide. Eddie Rayner is their Tony Banks, and not in a bad way. 😎
Thanks for the reaction, Justin! More please!!
One of New Zealand's finest bands. They started as a prog rock band led by Tim Finn and Phil Judd. When Phil left, Tim recruited his younger brother Neil and they became a strongly new wave band. Neil later went on to found Crowded House. Keyboardist Eddie Rayner was the band's secret weapon. Lots of fine songs - "I Hope I Never", "Poor Boy", "Six Months in a Leaky Boat", "I See Red", "Message to My Girl", and deep cuts like "Iris", "Things", "Ghost Girl", and "Giant Heartbeat"... for their earlier proggy sound, try "Charlie" or "Walking Down a Road" - enjoy!
Always loved this one, great rhythmic energy, and it had IMO the "feel" of a good 60s pop record. It was a big MTV hit although it only went to #53 in 80. The band was from New Zealand and was led by two brothers with the last name Finn.
Split Enz is a fun band. You should check out "One Step Ahead" and the full version of "Six Months in a Leaky Boat". Another fun band from that era may be "Hair Cut 100" and the song "Love plus One".
The verses are in a minor key, while the chorus is in a major key. The video adds to the mysteriousness by giving it a "Night Gallery" feel. "One Step.Ahead" was also another hit by them, off their album "Waiata." Check it out!
Yes, I love how the video clip amplifies the song's atmoshere, too!
😀👍
Same goes for 'History Never Repeats' 😊
Split Enz is a Kiwi group but the Finn brothers (primarily Neil who now tours with Fleetwood Mac) were also later a part of Crowded House, A Kiwi-Australian band. Both bands have plenty of great songs.
"Message To My Girl " and "Take A Walk" are two underappreciated classics by the Split Enz. Written and sung by Neil Finn who went on to form Crowded House.
There are so many varied classics in Da 'Enz catalogue.....
Split Enz were a great band from my youth. They were incredibly odd at times but always clever and often catchy as hell. Neil Finn joining the band really triggered them finding a wider audience. You may know him also from Crowded House.
Love Split Enz more than Crowded House. Can’t wait til you get to “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” and “Dirty Creatures”. Actually, Crowded House’s album “Woodface” is nearly perfect, I think because it included Tim Finn.
Woodface is indeed nearly perfect! Both Finn Brothers, and some of their best writing! I'd also highly recommend those albums done as simply The Finn Brothers, especially Everyone is Here from 2004. Their songwriting chops evolved over the years, and their harmonies always sparkle. Oh, and thanks for the shoutout, Justin! I did a double take when I heard my name!
I love 'Woodface' but it's very much two albums joined together. It started out as a Finn Brothers project before morphing into a regular Crowded House album. For me, Crowded House's finest hour was their fourth album 'Together Alone'. It's much more experimental, slightly darker in tone and saw them working with Youth (from the band Killing Joke) as the producer instead of Mitchell Froom. It still has some fantastic songs on it as you'd expect from Neil Finn, especially 'Distant Sun'. If I recall correctly, Tim does sing backing vocals on a couple of tracks too.
Yes, “Time and Tide” is an under appreciated masterpiece.
Woodface and Together Alone are both great albums, but to me Crowded House's crown jewel is Temple of Low Men. In particular, "Into Temptation" gets me every time.
@@jeremyb5640 Together Alone is an amazing album.
Neil and Tim Finn were in this band before they were in Crowded House. The "True Colours" LP was cool to look at, it had laser cut shapes on the vinyl, there's a picture of it on the Wikipedia page. I was stationed in the UK when this came out and got to hear them in concert on the BBC radio. They introduced their song 'I See Red' saying "It's one of the true colours."
I still have my 1982 copy in VG condition. A great album through and through. "What's the Matter With You?"
Love this song. Split Enz is a great band. They became another great band called Crowded House. Also the Finn Brothers.
Glad you've got to Split Enz! So much great music to discover. Tim Finn, sometime member of Crowded House, formed this band with Phil Judd in their home country of New Zealand in the early seventies and they released several progressive/art rock type albums. They used to have very stylised suits and hair-dos to match too! Tim's younger brother Neil (who sings lead on 'I Got You') later joined the band as well and steered them in a more new wave / poppy direction. This is one of my favourite new wave singles of my youth. Great energy and I love the use of synths. Like you I always enjoy the sense of paranoia in the verse and how that contrasts with the chorus. A classic. When Split Enz split 😉in 1984, Neil would go on to form Crowded House who were even more commercially successful, with Tim joining them for their huge-selling 'Woodface' album. Neil and Tim have also released a couple of acclaimed albums as The Finn Brothers.
ps - the video for this song is a fun watch. It features Neil standing in a room singing the song with the other band members performing in a framed picture on the wall behind him. The framed picture animates when he sings the chorus but goes still when he sings the verses. At the end of the video he's in the picture with the band.
Welcome back down to the Antipodes (Australia and New Zealand) Lovely surprise to see this song come up - memories of my teen years and listening to Split Enz on Countdown (Local Television Pop music show)
Saw Split Enz in London way back in 1978....I think 🤔....maybe '79...anyway my lasting memory is of one of the Finn brothers playing a solo on the.....electric spoons!!!
Poor Boy is my favourite song of theirs. It was a staple on the radio in my HSC year at school.
That schizo character in their songs remind me of Madness who were a contemporaneous ska band. The synths remind me of Devo too.
The juxtaposition of tone between the verse and chorus reflects the theme of the lyrics - the uncertainty of the early days of love. Swinging wildly between girding yourself for the worst, and sheer exuberance.
Six months in a Leaky Boat.
Ah...Split Enz....so good. Listen to their whole recording!!! Keep going! go go go ! Listen to one of the saddest songs ever by them "I hope i never".
Hitting up the obscure NZ bands again, huh? Awesome. I personally dig their earlier much artier work rather than the later more polished stuff... but that's like choosing between Chocolate and Strawberry icecream: both are delicious.
But yeah: it's a solid track to start with for sure. I'd suggest jumping forward two albums with My Mistake or Bold as Brass from 1977's Dizrythmia, or two albums into the future to 1982 with Time and Tide: maybe the songs Dirty Creature or Six months In A Leaky Boat from that.
Shout out to Nigel Griggs on the bass. Absolutely love his tone and vibe on basically any track.
Definitely check out "Six Months in a Leaky Boat".
Nice reaction, Justin! I'm so happy that you're delving into Split Enz! My favorite of theirs is Message to My Girl. It's a really lovely song. As many have said, Neil Finn from this band went on to form Crowded House, which would another great group to check out.
“One Step Ahead,” “Message to My Girl,” and my fave “I Hope I Never”… tips of the iceberg.
I've always enjoyed Split Enz, even their earlier, crazier, art rock stuff.
Never really got into Crowded House, though. I don't know why.
"I Got You" is fondly remembered in the UK as an early example of darkwave synth-pop from New Zealand and it charted at #12 in 1980. Great track.
I'm originally from New Zealand and grew up to the music of split enz and my favourite album is mental notes and song I love is spellbound
Yes, that intro... 😊
Like Genesis and various members of Yes and King Crimson, Split Enz and the Finn brothers made a HUGE move from early pre-Neil Finn prog-rock masterpieces like "Gormenghast" to stuff like Crowded House... when the first Crowded House album (also a masterpiece) came out, I had heard nothing like it. Probably going to go listen to it again now.
When I was15 years old this was one best bands great pop new wave
An insightful estimation of this band Justin. Their earlier albums certainly were off kilter. I did recommend once before Under the wheel off their first album and this will show you a very quirky, progressive side to them that you sensed.
The chorus may sound happy but Neil Finn Has said it's very dark
Love this band, saw them when they opened for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers on the "Hard Promises Tour"
Phil Manzanera produced Split Enz.
There's a live version of this with Eddie Vedder as supporting vocalist.
I understand they came from an Art Rock/Pop background but skewed New Wave like a lot of art rock/pop bands (is just seemed a natural home for many of those oddball bands). Also consider "I see Red" (The video shows their devo-esque similarity) and "6 months in a leaky boat".
As others have pointed out, the Brothers Finn who are the creative core of the band are low key musical legends, later becoming the core of Crowded House (who were even bigger world wide) and even have a "Solo" Album of just the Brothers which is a nice listen.
Some of the best pure pop new wave out there love you
Great reaction JP! Being a forever fan of Crowded House - it was a natural progression to the band that came before for Neil Finn - Split Enz. This was indeed a hit here in Canada. Quirky, weird, but excellent - all the things that translated to Crowded House later. Neil was cutting his teeth as a songwriter here. LOVE the track. Cheers.
Wow, this was the first song that I ever heard from the Finn brothers in all their incarnations. This is a most rewarding rabbit hole! I see Neil and Tim as the successors to the Beatles in regard to intelligent, sophisticated pop music. Whether it’s Split Enz, Crowded House, Finn Brothers or their solo work it’s all great. It has kept me entertained for nearly 50 years, I still jump on each new release and rare tour event. Go J P you can’t go wrong with these guys!
The farther back in time you go with their albums, the proggier and more experimental they get. It's all worth exploring. Every single song. As others have metioned, Time And Tide is probably the best intro album to the band. Love it. I am also a big fan of their earlier album Dizrythmia. Very different.
New Wave / Alt Pop for sure! My favorite track is "Nobody Takes Me Seriously". For years it was a mystery track on a mix tape, until the Internet finally matured. :)
So excited to see you hear Split Enz! Love them along with Crowded House. Split Enz’s song Message to My Girl is what I consider a perfect song. Looking forward to seeing you dive a little deeper into their catalog,
Thank you, J.P.!
This is actually a good album - one of the few like it I got into when it came out, apart from The Police and The Cars (which were a cut above, of course). Somehow I always associate it with Argybargy by Squeeze, probably just because they came out and were on my turntable at the same time, as I sought out changes of pace from the fading prog scene. I think you'll like it.
I had their album that was laser cut with vivid geometric designs. Great music and a great album.
Sort of an Elvis Costello meets Buddy Holly vibe. It's a favourite of mine.
As others have said, which I'll echo, "Dirty Creature" and/or "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" and then maybe a Crowded House song. Their knack for melody is as good as it gets. Someone also mentioned Haircut 100. That's a great suggestion. Take care Justin.
This album was their breakthought album commercialy. Charted high in a variety of countrys.
Loved this New Wave band and saw the brothers front for The Cars then down the road in Crowded House. How Can I Resist Her, Shark Attack and Nobody Takes Me Seriously Anyway off True Colours are fun but later they put out One Step Ahead, Hard Act to Follow and History Never Repeats. Great stuff!
They have so many great songs and were largely reformed as Crowded House. “Dirty Creature,” “Hello Sandy Allen,” “History Never Repeats,” “One Step Ahead” and “Iris” would be some of my recommendations for further listening.
This band during the late 70’s had the mix of the velvet underground with some of the punk rock sound mixed together. Completely a 360 when they formed Crowded House. It was popular that time such as Blondie, The Cars, etc. formed it into a pop sound just before new wave became popular. If you listen to early Duran Duran, The Ramones they have similarities between each of these bands back then.
A very good analogy of this song
Love that you got to Split Enz. As others have said try the amazing Pioneer/Six Months in a Leaky Boat. One transitions into the other. The Finn brothers are master song writers.
Get all their vinyls albums. They were so brillant !!
New Zealand music royalty. Off kilter is a good descriptive - early Enz is very avant garde with extreme makeup and costumes - their evolution is something to behold. This era of Kiwi music was awesome from the radio friendly pop hits of artists like 'DD Smash', 'The Dance Exponents' and 'The Mockers' to the more indie groups/university bands from the likes of the Flying Nun label, like 'The Chills', 'The Tall Dwarfs', 'The Bats', 'The Clean'...OMG the list goes on. Growing up as a teenager in NZ in the 80's was an experience lol. As a taste I'd love to suggest Headless Chickens 'Gaskrankinstation'.
My ex-partner's favourite band. She was a Kiwi. I grew to love them too.
They released a cool laser etched LP for this album
I've got one. If I'm remembering correctly, they also released the album with different color schemes on the sleeve.
Fantastic band, with tons of great songs! Essentially they were the precursor to Crowded House, as Neil Finn was a writing/performing member of Split Enz, and then went on to form Crowded House. By the way, Neil wrote this particular song. I saw both Split Enz and Crowded House in concert in the 1980s. Awesome shows!!!
Other superb Split Enz songs to check out:
- What's the Matter with You
- I Hope I Never
- Hard Act to Follow
- One Step Ahead
- I Don't Wanna Dance
- Iris
- Clumsy
- Dirty Creature
- Never Ceases to Amaze Me
- Small World
- Take a Walk
- Pioneer / Six Months in a Leaky Boat
- Message to My Girl
Didn't pursue their career but I always liked this song.
"Walking Through The Ruins" and "DIrty Creature" are great.
The original lp was laser etched and looks like a rainbow in the light. Also, the cover came in colors for the background. Yours is red mine is blue. The other 2 are purple and yellow.
If I remember correctly, there was a geometric design, similar to the album cover, laser-etched on the vinyl record! Could be wrong, haven't seen it in decades. ;-]
1978. this is a forward thinking track . . . where the angst of punk moved toward the polish of new wave style pop songs.
Yeah, you pretty much nailed that. While they were chart monsters in NZ during their heyday, they often jumped back and forth between radio-friendly new-wave pop and avant garde art-pop, I guess you could say "Oingo Boingo's overseas cousin". Even a lot of their other radio-friendly singles rode a very fine line and constantly risked alienating the general audience, but they always somehow managed to keep everything in check.
They're an incredibly intriguing rabbit hole. Songs like Message To My Girl and One Step Ahead are pop *masterpieces*. Timeless, classic, and awe-inspiringly beautiful while feeling seemingly effortless.
Split Enzymes are fun. I used to have Dizrythmia on cassette. Check out some images of them. Crazy outfits and hair.
For me this album is among the 10 best of 1980
Also from them - "Six Months In A Leaky Boat", "Charlie". Both of these are brilliant!😅
"Six Months In A Leaky Boat" is to me a mission statement of get out there and explore the world. Fantastic song.
Check out the actual video of this song. It's stars an adorable 21 year old Neil Finn. I got to see Crowded House in a smaller venue and Man did Neil make the girls swoon.
A great NZ band. The Finn brothers Tim in this band and later Neil joined. Neil would later create the band crowded house and auusie band lead by NZ (which Tim later joined). Both, especially Neil has a bit of that McCartney style and magic. Worth getting into them.
I'd first heard this band's name already in '82, when I was 12, but it was only 30 years later that I finally heard an actual song of theirs (THIS one), after I'd moved from Germany to New Zealand, where 'the Enz' originate from and the Finn brothers are regarded as national music icons.
'I Got You' can still be heard a lot everywhere here today! Not a bad one, but I like other Split Enz songs way better: 'Six Months In A Leaky Boat', 'Shark Attack', 'I See Red', 'Message To My Girl' and also earlier stuff like 'Jamboree' and 'Spellbound' 😊
Their debut album Mental Notes is Semi Prog like Roxy Music.
Stranger Than Fiction is my favorite by them. Tons of Mellotron.
FINALLY!!! Finally you have yourself opened the door to an astonishing universe of great compositions, silly lyrics, a big amount of querkiness and kinkiness and uniqiness (hehe, sorry, in good mood today).
For getting a better understanding watch one of their live concerts of that Era (Or the Album "Enz of an 'Era", haha). Ok, serious. Try the following link, after getting used to the bad video quality, you will love it. Enjoy :)
Also check out the follow-up band "Crowded House" after they SPLIT up (reunion in 2006, nice live show, too). In the ENz you get from both benads and all Neil Finn / Timm Finn solo or brother works around 20 studio albums of finest song quality!
Ah Split Enz!!! A very goofy band. You started with their most popular song which probably is the first song I heard from them. I hope you listen to more of them. My favorite album of theirs is "Time and Tide". It perfectly blends their pop elements with their goofiness. I see several comments suggesting "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" from that album, if you do that song, play "Pioneer" with it as they go together. "Pioneer" is a short beautiful instrumental that leads into "Six Months in a Leaky Boat". Neil Finn wrote and sung "I Got You", he brought the pop hooks to Split Enz. He later became known as the leader of Crowded House which you reacted to their most famous song "Don't Dream It's Over". I always hoped you would go back to them by reacting to the "Woodface" album or the "Together Alone" album
This is relatively late in what had until then been a fairly kaleidoscopic career. The album is full of solid material, though for me the stand-out track is Tim Finn's I Hope I Never, as powerful a vocal performance as you could wish for.
Great artrock band. Good choice.
You got to check the official music vid with this one.
yay! ok, next split enz song is "six months in a leaky boat" 😊
Great stuff!
Check out their song Poor Boy, it's a beauty.
Nice. New Zealand some absolutely great NZ music. May I recommend some CHILLS. Come on NZ people. Introduce him to some great NZ music
Along with The Verlaines, The Bats and The Clean. Good stuff.
Look at JP nodding his head like he’s Noel Crombie ha ha
I dont if thats good or not😅
Cracking tune JP , got even better when they morphed into Crowded House ✊
👍🏴
Hi Justin. Dave from London. You're The Voice! Like you, I want to hear what else Split Enz have, as I only know this UK hit single. I'm surprised I haven't delved deeper, as I'm a big fan of the Finn brothers' later band, Crowded House.
P.S. my song ref You're The Voice is by Aussie singer John Farnham, and I always thought that was the biggest selling single in Australian history (There's Kylie too, of course). C'mon, it's their unofficial national anthem!
Yeah Split Enz! 🔥One Step Ahead - as others say here - is good.. haven't heard that one in a long time! I Got You tends to be the one that turns up on 80s compilations, especially those that were big in the 90s.. because I guess in the 90s we were already nostalgic for the 80s. ;)
Split Enz is definitely on the art pop spectrum - this is one of their most commercial. They also often have a lot of humor in their music. To get the view on their more eclectic roots, check out Sweet Dreams (Official Video)... and please watch the video, you won't be disappointed!
*"They also often have a lot of humor in their music."*
See Chocolate Cake from Woodface for some of that 😀
Takes me back to Sophomore year of college. Split Enz was a favorite of the girl I was into, who later became my girlfriend, until she wasn't anymore.
Great first song choice, but they have a pretty deep rabbit hole. "One Step Ahead", "Six Months in a Leaky Boat", "I hope I never", and "Message to my Girl" are well represented in many of my 80's playlists and I highly recommend you check them out.
What everyone else has already said x10 plus I'd add, Tim Finn - Fraction Too Much Friction
Hope your week is going well brother
A little late but "Message To My Girl" is such a beautiful song. You should really listen to it.
Split Enz, legend! Ah...The Finn brothers...will lead you to Crowded House. Fantastic writers and musicians! You should have a listen to Message to my girl.
Early Crowded House...
My favorite song from Split Enz is "One Step Ahead", so I hope you can get to it!
Dirty Creature is an amazing track, about depression. The band is really unusual, there is nothing quite like them - and this track is their most straight down the line track they ever did. (Great though).
You choose great songs
Thanks Laura! :D
Off the top of my head, from this album two songs worth adding to this would be Shark Attack, and The Choral Sea (instrumental) - both having quite a lot of Vooom. Yes, this was one of the hits from that album (and constructed to do that job).
Beyond this, I don't know them that well, but can recommend Six Months in a Leaky Boat and another one whose name has just this very moment decided to slip away, and now elude me. Early Split Enz is a quirkier band.
My favourite New Zealand song is *Don't Fight it Marsha ... * by *Blam Blam Blam* , but that's largely because it has the lines, "and I want you to be happy/ But I'd rather that you were still with me ... " ua-cam.com/video/91Dt_0bPOTI/v-deo.html
Check out "If I didn't Love You".❤
Although I love the New Wave music of Gary Numan and Ultravox, and although my Canada produced many of the best New Wave bands of the 80s, Split Enz wrote the most consistently catchy and imaginative songs of the decade. And then, kid brother Neil continued the great streak with Crowded House, on his own and as a duo with big brother, Tim.
Tim's solo albums were very popular too, but their Poppy sound often felt too forced, for my taste. However, his eponymous solo album was brilliant, as great across both sides as anything that Neil ever released. Check out Tim Finn's "How'm I Gonna Sleep Without You" and the fake ad jingle video clip from the early Eric Roberts movie, "The Coca Cola Kid".
Crowded House: "When She Comes" builds to a tremendous climax, while "Message to my Girl" is one of the best Pop songs of the past 40 years.
Neil solo: try "Try Whistling This".
After a few years of watching music reactions on YT, I appreciate how you've grown and how sophisticated your analyses have become.
I saw them last year. They opened the show with When You Come, and I was crying by the end of it. Just amazing!
It was a real treat to see this album for the first time with the laser etched vinyl record inside. I posted a video for those who want to see what it does when you play it.
ua-cam.com/video/LZCxjmkYUPw/v-deo.html
The song follows the traditional a-b-a-b-c-a-b. It makes me wonder if this was the blueprint for Genesis' song "Abacab". Also the Split Enz album cover is geometric shapes spelling their name, and there were a variety of printed covers with several different color schemes. Genesis did the same variety of colors with their Abacab album covers.
Good song but I think 'Message to My Girl' was their best.
Message To My Girl is a God damn pop masterpiece. And I'm not being hyperbolic in the slightest - it's the kind of song that artists *wish* they'd come up with.
Another awesome group from New Zealand MI SEX
"Computer Games" is a fun little track
@musicdroog7666 my favourite track would be it only hurts when I'm laughing