Comparing notes

Split Enz is marking the 50th anniversary of its debut LP with reunion dates, but does a new reissue do the groundbreaking album justice?

- GRAHAM REED

When what is likely to be the final Split Enz reunion tour of Australia was announced last month - four dates in state capitals except for Brisbane - there was immediate speculation about shows on this side of the Tasman, where the band is already an exclusive headliner at The Electric Avenue festival in Christchurch in February.

In recent interviews for the 50th anniversary release of the band's first two studio albums, Eddie Rayner, keyboardist and steward of the Enz's recorded history, has hinted at a one-off show in New Zealand focused on the era of Mental Notes and its followup, Second Thoughts.

In the meantime, the band playing the 2026 dates is quite different from the group of men in their early 20s who wrote the seminal debut album Mental Notes 50 years ago.

Not only will they have relative youngster Neil Finn, who joined as an 18-year-old in 1977, but a ring-in rhythm section of drummer Matt Eccles (who started in Neil Finn's son Liam's teenage band Betchadupa), and bassist James Milne (aka Lawrence Arabia).

Only three original members – Tim Finn, Rayner and percussionist and designer Noel Crombie – remain in the live lineup from the seven-piece that recorded Mental Notes, one of the most extraordinary albums conceived by Kiwis.

As waves of progressive rock from Genesis, Jethro Tull and Yes were breaking on our shores and often-stoned listeners expected albums to challenge them, Split Enz's 1975 record was out on its own.

It wasn't prog-rock, or even a kind of avant-garde retro-rock like their peers Roxy Music. Mental Notes was unique, an occasionally uneasy listen but a landmark of musical and lyrical invention. It was also downright weird. In places, Tim Finn and Phil Judd sing like men hanging by their fingernails; the music is all odd angles, strange sonic and instrumental conjunctions, songs are soothing or abrupt by turns.