AMG Review of Mental Notes

Chris Woodstra
All Music Guide

The first proper Split Enz album features the band at its eccentric best. Mental Notes is completely noncommercial art rock filled with ambitious arrangements and slightly disturbing themes courtesy of the Phil Judd and Tim Finn songwriting partnership. Finn's bittersweet crooning perfectly complements Judd's madman persona on tracks like "Stranger Than Fiction." Although the album would be repackaged, renamed, and re-recorded in years to come, the band would never again produce anything like it.