It seems to me that a lot of thought must have gone into the naming of SE's albums - some of them are quite ingeneous and in many ways tell a story of the group. Some thoughts:
1. "Mental Notes" - brilliant wordplay.
2. "Second Thoughts" - my favorite, this. It links the first two albums thematically and offers an explaination for the re-recorded tracks.
3. "Dizrhythmia" - not sure about this one. Dysrhythmia in medical terminology means an irregular heart beat or "missing" beats. Perhaps this refers to Phil Judd's departure or the change in the rhythm section line-up (Crowther, Chunn out; Green, Griggs and Neil in)
4. "Frenzy" - the weakest, I think although the first play on "enz" in a title. "I See Red" would have been better, but that track wasn't originally included
5. "True Colours" - self explanatory. Nice how it references a song from the earlier period suggesting a momentum developing over the previous releases
6. "Waiata" - celebratory
7. "Time And Tide" - reflective, more serious tone as they adjust to (the ebb and flow of) their success
8. "Conflicting Emotions" - prophetic
9. "See Ya Round" - a throw away farewell but hinting that we haven't seen the last of them

Those are my thoughts - anybody else see any other meanings?

Producer David Tickle tells a good story about how the "True Colours" title came about.

Your take on it seems bang on to me. I'd never thought about Dizrythmia like that before but it seems to fit, doesn't it.

An interesting an fascinating set of observations there, especially the one for Dizrythmia. How about the ironically titled History Never Repeats - the most reissued Enz album and perhaps their best-selling compilation.

quote:

7. "Time And Tide" - reflective, more serious tone as they adjust to (the ebb and flow of) their success

This comes from the quote 'Time and tide wait for no man' by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.

As for Dizrythmia, I always athought it summed up Split Enz' style and music perfectly....odd rhythms and key changes, quirky vocals, strange appearances. Don't think they could have chosen a better title.

I recall reading some apocryphal [I've always wanted to use that word ] account that "Dizrythmia" was derived from a term meaning "motion sickness" and referred to the amount of travel and touring Split Enz was doing at the time.

Frenzy could be because the music was more angsty than its predecessors.

quote:

Dysrhythmia in medical terminology means an irregular heart beat or "missing" beats.

i believe the term for that is actually "fibrillation" which would've made an awesome album title nonetheless

quote:

"Dizrythmia" was derived from a term meaning "motion sickness"

close but no cigar, Dizrythmia is actually a misspelling of the medical term for jet lag, "circadian dysrhythmia" i spose they were referring to all the travel of the members leaving and joining prior to the albums recording

quote:

Originally posted by Greatfox:
Dizrythmia is actually a misspelling of the medical term for jet lag, "circadian dysrhythmia" i spose they were referring to all the travel of the members leaving and joining prior to the albums recording

Yeah, thats where Dizrythmia came from, i remember reading it on a website somewhere. I think it was an interview with Tim, when he said that they were on a plane from somewhere to somwhere else and he read that on something (how specific is that ).

But i always thought it refured to their style of playing, the actual performance aspect of it; in fits and jerks. Circadian dysrythmia literally translated means 'body rhythms out of sync', which i think discribes some of the Dizrythmia and Frenzy film clips perfectly (see I See Red ).

Anyway, i dont remeber if that was actually implied in the interview, or i just drew my own conclusions, and i cant for the life of me remeber what the website was. Dizrythmia has always been one of my fav album titles.

i'm pretty sure i read it on wikipedia