Split Enz, ENZcyclopedia, Volumes 1 & 2

A five-disc set that thoroughly chronicles Split Enz's early years, when the band was co-led by Tim Finn and Phil Judd.

Split Enz, ENZcyclopedia, Volumes 1 & 2 [2025; 1973-1976] ★★★★

Split Enz, Mental Notes [1975] ★★★★

Split Enz, Second Thoughts [1976] ★★★★

Mental Notes, the debut album from Split Enz that is at the heart of the new five-disc box set ENZcyclopedia, Volumes 1 & 2, still sounds like a transmission from a faraway land. It sounds as if its creators are aware of the sounds and intent of rock’n’roll, yet aren’t quite familiar with the form. Anybody familiar with the sharp, concise new wave hits from Split Enz may be surprised by how Mental Notes seems untethered from time and space: songs stretch out, ebbing and flowing without quite reaching a crescendo, melodies dance around the chords without coalescing into sharp hooks.

The elusiveness of Mental Notes recalls the work of other eccentrics of the early 1970s. There’s a distinct strain of Genesis that can be discerned in the band’s blend of pastoral folk and theatrical rock, but the inspiration doesn’t seem direct; it sounds as if Split Enz read about Genesis instead of listening to records. Maybe that’s why the comparison to Genesis irked Tim Finn, the singer/songwriter who co-led Enz in the early days alongside Phil Judd. Talking to RAM magazine later in the 1970s, he said “Our main influence is The Beatles and always has been. That’s why the King Crimson/Genesis tags have always puzzled me – we’re far more interested in songs than they ever were. We’re more in the mould of bands like The Kinks, The Move.”

Indeed, it’s possible Split Enz took their very name from a Split Ends, a 1972 compilation by The Move that focused on the music when it was reduced to a trio of Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, and Bev Bevan. The Move does echo through Mental Notes—partciularly the baroque, minor-key swirl of Wood’s “It Wasn’t My Idea To Dance” and the dense, pulsing psychedelia of Lynne’s “The Words of Aaron”—but it’s also easy to hear Finn’s predilection for bright British pop, especially on “Amy (Darling),” which is punchier than so many of its companions. What pushes Mental Notes toward unexpected territory is Judd, whose songwriting is as distinct (and sometimes jarring) as his adenoidal voice. Drawing as much inspiration from visual art, literature, and theater as rock music, during these early years Judd seemed disinterested in the conventions of pop songwriting. “Under the Wheel” and “Stranger Than Fiction” play like albums in miniature, a tendency that holds true of all of his collaborations with Finn. The compositions almost feel designed for an unproduced stage show: they have an arch theatricality, unfolding almost like an elongated suite instead of a set of cohesive songs.

Split Enz did invest in arresting stage shows, styling themselves as something akin to nightmarish clowns with teased hair and thick makeup. The live act caught the imagination of Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera. In the liner notes to ENZcyclopedia, Volumes 1 & 2, he remembers arriving in his hotel room after a grueling journey to Sydney for Roxy Music’s first trip to Australia to discover Split Enz playing live on TV: “I thought, hang on—this is not what I expected down under.” He learned that the band was scheduled to open for Roxy in Sydney. He was so impressed by their set, he extended an offer to help if they ever needed anything. According to Stranger Than Fiction: The Life and Times of Split Enz, the biography by Enz bassist Mike Chunn, the group couldn’t wait for an opening in Manzanera’s schedule, so they rushed into the studio with producer/engineer Dave Russell to make Mental Notes.

Here’s where the confusion sets in. Dissatisfied with the original Mental Notes, the band opted to revisit the material with Manzanera. In the notes to ENZcyclopedia, Finn explains, “Phil and I had imagined epic and luxurious soundscapes that would stand alongside the albums we were obsessed with. How could an album made with a disengaged engineer, limited budget and a nervous, inexperienced band measure up? It couldn’t.” They re-recorded a good portion of the album, along with some new and old singles, calling the whole shebang Second Thoughts (literal album titles were a weakness of Split Enz; they called their farewell record See Ya’ Round). Second Thoughts is a brighter, fuller affair, sounding richer than Mental Notes but lacking the out-of-phrase mystery the band accidentally achieved on the cheap. The material remains endearingly odd: art-rock with more pomp than pretension.

By the time Second Thoughts arrived in late 1976, the kind of eccentricity that became Split Enz’s specialty had fallen out of favor. The new wave was rising and it’d soon lift Enz, as well. Judd left the band early in 1977, replaced by Tim’s younger brother Neil Finn, who would soon prove to be Phil’s opposite: a skilled craftsman who favored succinct structures and accessible ideas. Tim Finn sharpened his songwriting, too, giving the band their first hits in their native New Zealand with “My Mistake” and “I See Red,” but Neil’s turn-of-the-’80s hits “I Got You” and “History Never Repeats” brought Split Enz to the UK and the US.

None of this material is on ENZcyclopedia, Volumes 1 & 2, a five-disc box devoted to the Split Enz’s early years with Phil Judd. This has all of Mental Notes and Second Thoughts, plus The Beginning of the Enz, a 1979 compilation of singles released between 1973 and 1975, as well as a collection of live cuts and rough mixes dubbed Wide Angle Enz. There’s also a new mix of Second Thoughts by Enz keyboardist Eddie Rayner. That’s not the only alternation here. Some tracks on Mental Notes are extended, others are shortened; it sounds for all the world like new electronic rhythms have been overlaid on “Spellbound” on this version of The Beginning of the Enz. All the tinkering doesn’t distract from the enduring, endearing oddness of Mental Notes and Second Thoughts: it’s bizarre, beautiful music that is of its time and floats outside of it.