Personal exploration, time, memory, the state of the world, history, family, confusion, and the darker corners of the human psyche -- these are themes of Time & Tide, the 1982 masterpiece of the Split Enz cannon. Unlike the band's two most recent predecessors, which meditated largely on the trials and tribulations of romance, Time & Tide broached on weightier subject matter. While more serious than any other Enz album, rather than brooding on these themes, or presenting them in a didactic manner, the band instead offers a more pensive, introspective deliverly -- shades of a more mature, developed songwriting style that would lead one to think that this band could go on to do anything.

Time & Tide is the one unquestionably brilliant album that Split Enz made. It was no surprise that it won our little Enz SURVIVOR contest, which wasn't a very scientific exercise granted, but at least it confirmed what most of us knew all along anyway. So what if True Colours sold more and contained that famous little pop ditty sung by N. Finn . . . If any album deserves to get the full remastering treatment next, it is certainly this one (complete with a second disc of demos, outtakes and live tracks, one would hope!).

While "Dirty Creature" and "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" (with its wonderful coda that always gets stuck in my head) are likely familiar to even the most casual Enz fan, Time & Tide contains a whole host of other, lesser known songs -- "Take a Walk" notwithstanding. (I was pleased to see this song resurrected in recent years in solo Neil shows. Thank you Mr. Vedder).

"Sandy Allen," "Giant Heartbeat," "Log Cabin Fever," "Make Sense of It" and all the rest also need to be hauled out of obscurity in order to be given a fresh or new listen by Finn fans who have either forgotten about these songs or never known of their existence in the first place. There are few things sadder than a forgotten song. (Okay, so that's a gross exageration, bit one gets the point).

The listener can feel how well the band is clicking on this album -- with the Finns at a songwriting peak, speaking directly as individuals rather than as characters. The costumes, odd hairdos and such vanished with this record. They even showed a little skin in some press photos! The mask was gone, and the songs could speak for themselves. It was real, not a gimmick.

But not only that, with a band which had seen so many personnel changes, a real sense that a core identity as a band of musicians with a certain "sound" had finally emerged. And it worked.

Sadly, though, in many ways Time & Tide is the last true Split Enz album. Its successor, though with its own moments of brilliance ("The Devil You Know" or "Message to My Girl," for instance), did not live up to expectations -- mostly because this was a band breaking apart. Tim had already been busy with Escapade and was poised to leave the band for good, Noel's drumming was largely replaced by machines and session musicians (it's Tim solo producer Ricky Fataar that plays drums on "Message to Mg Girl," not Noel), songs were overburdenned with overdubs, and the amazing "We've really found our voice and grown into our skin as a band"-ness of Time & Tide was largely lost.

Of course, everything is forgiven since this chain of events led to the eventual creation of Crowded House and all the other wonderful music by the Finns . . . but one still has to wonder: "What if . . . ?"

I really would encourage those of you out there who might not have listenned to this album in full recently to dust it off. Or, for those of you who only know it through a track here and there on complations, to track down a copy of the full album in order to hear it in its full thematic glory.

And, for Peter Green and those in the know . . . to please consider re-releasing this album in a properly mastered CD form. I would beg you for a DVD-A, but that seems unlikely. If Eddie Rayner or Mushroom Records are on a remastering kick, then this album certainly deserves a restoration.

Oh how I remember the release of time and tide. I was a new-found fan thanks to the magic of MTV. With full on "neil love" I stayed up until the late hour of 11 pm to watch the world premiere of both the "6 months" and "dirty creature" videos.
Hungry for anything new from the band. I recall mailing in about 50 postcards to the MTV contest to win the T&T cassette with the T&T silk black tour jacket. Alas I did not win but even as a young teen I knew I'd be a lifer.

quote:

Originally posted by cradle:
I recall mailing in about 50 postcards to the MTV contest to win the T&T cassette with the T&T silk black tour jacket. Alas I did not win but even as a young teen I knew I'd be a lifer.

Rats! I'd like that jacket too . . .