By Keith Walsh
Most people who knew about the album True Colors by the New Zealand band new wave band Split Enz knew about it from the single “I Got You.” I heard that song my junior year of high school. It had everything – melodic hooks, polished performances, unique sounds. One sound in particular, that evolving metallic synthesizer sound was surely from the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, the latest popular instrument that made the scene. The vinyl album had unique laser etchings, that were holographic, and the album cover came in a variety of color variations.
I got the album right away, made a cassette copy to play in my car. The sophisticated songwriting, playing and singing exhilarated me. I couldn’t understand how men in their 20s could play so well, knew so much about song composition and arrangements. I remember listening to “What’s The Matter With You” and understood the writer’s depth of experience and the value of writing something so bratty and rebellious to get it out of one’s system. “Shark Attack” had that embarrassing amputation metaphor. The entire song is a bit extreme and raw in its counter attack on the extortion that comes with foolish romance but it’s effective.
At 16 I listened to the entire album and understood I needed to have more life experience to write songs of this depth, but I didn’t want the lessons. “I Hope I Never” is a classic ballad and a sign that these guys are not your typical pop stars. The brothers Tim and Neil Finn later created the band Crowded House and got success with the single and video “Something So Strong”; their album Woodface is a classic. Their ballads are some of the most beautiful ever written.
Eddie Rayner’s keyboards in particular challenged me. At 16 I was full of nervous tension and potential, but there was no skipping the line. I needed to put in the time to get to that level. In the summer when I graduated high school, I saw Split Enz in concert. All the excitement and fun eclipsed the discomfort of standing for the entire show.
The follow ups Waiata and Time And Tide were also popular spins by me, with cassettes for my car. “Six Months In A Leaky Boat” from the latter album was a big hit on radio and a constructive metaphor. “Dirty Creature” I grokked as the story about something lurking in our subconscious, shadows that threatened to overtake us, unless processed with words and art. One of the best songs about heartbreak ever is “History Never Repeats” from Waiata.
The songs on this album resonated with my questioning and search for meaning when I was younger. At the same time, the band name Split Enz seemed to go against that earnestness. I didn’t care for the name of the band at all. Forty five years later it seems perfect.
KfW 10_3_25