Stranger than Fiction, Larger Than Life: the Finn Brothers song-by-song discussion thread

Our votes for "In the Wars":

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Average Score: 3.48

 

Today we will begin discussing tracks from Time and Tide. After the tension filled Waiata, Mal Green left the band and the Enz did a world tour, hitting Europe and the States as well as their home base and using long-time percussionist/visual department head Noel Crombie as the drummer, thus stripping their live sound further towards a streamlined pop/rock sound.

As mentioned in previous posts, it was apparently a dark time for Tim Finn, but he came out of it at some point. Many of the songs on Time and Tide would be uncharacteristically autobiographical for Tim as he finally bared his soul in his songs.

Time and Tide was produced by Hugh Padgham and Split Enz (mainly Eddie Rayner); since working with Padgham on Frenzy, he had gone on to work on albums by Genesis, Phil Collins and The Police.

The songs on the album are as follows:

1. "Dirty Creature" (Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Nigel Griggs
2. "Giant Heartbeat" (N. Finn & Griggs)
3. "Hello Sandy Allen" (N. Finn) – 3:51
4. "Never Ceases to Amaze Me" (T. Finn) – 3:06
5. "Lost for Words" (N. Finn, T. Finn & Griggs) – 3:02
6. "Small World" (T. Finn) – 3:37
7. "Take a Walk" (N. Finn) – 3:37
8. "Pioneer" (Eddie Rayner) – 1:32
9. "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" (T. Finn & Split Enz) – 4:21
10. "Haul Away" (T. Finn) – 2:27
11. "Log Cabin Fever" (N. Finn) – 4:36
12. "Make Sense of It" (Noel Crombie, T. Finn, N. Finn, Griggs & Rayner) – 3:40

Additionally there is one bonus track from the era which we will discuss afterwards:

"Firedrill"(N. Finn, T. Finn, Rayner)

 

When Mal Green left the band the story was that his visa expired and he was deported. It was only later fans found out he was sacked. When they did the tour they started with History Never Repeats which Noel stuffed up every night. After that he was okay.

 

For some reason on Time + Tide someone figured out Tim would write all the commercial singles and Neil would write all the weird edgy stuff. Amazingly it worked because the resulting album is a 5/5

 

Time and Tide is, possibly, the band's most consistent and mature album. It has it's share of filler, but also has so many high points it's bordering on silly. Quite how this album failed to break out in other markets is something of a minor mystery. Although, we'll discuss some rather poor choices by significant UK media later...

 

Today's song is "Dirty Creature", written by Neil Finn, Tim Finn and Nigel Griggs. It features lead vocals by Tim Finn.


"Dirty Creature" was released as a single in March 1982, a bit ahead of the Time and Tide album and reached the Top Ten in both Australia and New Zealand. It's also been released on most compilations and there are versions on the live albums The Living Enz, Anniversary/Extravagenza, and Tim Finn's iTunes Live at Windsor Castle.

 

Dirty Creature is a great song about depression. It's almost funky. What really makes it though is Eddie's keyboards at the end. Totally takes the song to the next level. 5/5

 

Dirty Creature is, perhaps, the best thing Tim ever wrote and might be the best preformance/arrange the Enz ever came up with. If ever a performance matched the feel of the lyric, this is it. 5/5

 

This is a great tune, but measured against some others in the catalog there's too many I like more to go all the way to the top of the scale with this one
4/5

 

4/5

An excellent way to start the album and a fine writing collaboration. A show of intent after the lacklustre previous album.

 

Great song. Among my favourite Enz songs.
Rhythmically and melodically interesting and a nice piece of somewhat cryptic lyric writing.
5/5

Did Tim suffer from depression? Sounds like a lyric from someone who knows

 

So many things to love about Dirty Creature. Tim’s vocal and lyric. Eddie’s keys. Nigel’s bass. Neil’s stabbing guitar sounds. Excellent drumming from Noel. A total group effort that ranks among their very best.

5/5.

 

This gives me an opportunity to address something that, as a Split Enz fan, bothers me to this day. As stated above, Noel did a terrific job drumming not only on this song but the entire Time and Tide album. Paul Hester is deified by many because of his personality, but Hessy was NOT a significantly better drummer than Noel if even a better drummer at all. Noel should have stayed the drummer as his drumming style is more varied and adventurous as Hessy's, which to me was always pretty plain vanilla.

And yes...I realize that Hester was brought on near the end of the Enz, anyway.

 

Time and Tide is probably my favorite Split Enz album. Unfortunately, it has never received an adequate CD reissue. Compared to the original vinyl LP, all of the CD masterings are significantly inferior. What was, at the time, the best sounding Enz album to date (thanks to Hugh Padgham) sounds far less so now in its digital masterings. I had hoped that the 2006 remaster would correct the problems on the original mid-1980s-period CDs, but it did not. It just boosted the levels (no remixing here). So, my digital version of the album is a rip of the original LP and it sounds fantastic.

"Dirty Creature" is a fantastic opening track, with that chunky R&B rhythm guitar and Tim's staccato lead vocal. A solid choice for a single as well (album cut "Make Sense of It" was on the b-side). The song is pretty clearly about the dark moods that Tim apparently experienced and the lyrics are smart and perceptive. What works so well is that the lyric is set to a relatively jaunty melody and rhythm, even though there is an ominous undercurrent to the music. Love the piano on the instrumental fade section. 4.2/5

 

Tim Finn's best stuff on Time and Tide is so much better than anything else he'd done since Judd left - it's like a different writer. Not hiding behind a guise and writing about himself probably helped.

This is a clear 5/5 - in the group's ten best songs ever.

 

The closest Split Enz ever got to being funky is with Dirty Creature. And, when you consider where Split Enz started, that really is "stranger than fiction".

 

I agree about Crombie: on record he's a great drummer. Perhaps when playing live it was a problem?

"Dirty Creature" is indeed a fine song, with every member of the band contributing some economic and restrained stuff in a way that serves the song. Keyboards are great both the unusual piano playing (is that Tim or Eddie?) that punctuates the end of each chorus, and the ghostly synths that come over; the great rhythm guitar and lead guitar, which brings a sense of wildness to the song, the rolling bassline and especially Tim Finn's rhythmic vocal.

The lyrical idea of a monster lying deep in the depths of the "lake" of Tim's consciousness is typical Jungian imagery, which is pretty unusual for a pop song, particularly a pop song that sailed into the (Australian and NZ) top ten!

I'll give it 4.6 out of 5.

 

Thanks to this thread, I recently went hunting for a copy of the international edition of Frenzy. I scored a copy that came as a bonus with Time and Tide. This post has given me cause to give T&T a clean up and pop it through the ripping machine

 

The vinyl really does sound so much better than any CD version I'm aware of existing. The CDs have a weird sound that I can't quite put a finger on, almost like the stereo image is unbalanced or something. I'm not a vinyl snob in any way at all, but this is one instance where I'm guessing something went haywire in the original CD mastering and it has propagated onward to this day. Perhaps the original LP masters (or the original master tapes themselves) have gone missing or something.

 

The Time and Tide Mushroom CDs seemed to have stereo widening treatment, making everything in the middle too low in level. The original LP, the original Japanese CD and the 1997 Spellbound compilation sound ok in this regard.

Back to 1982... these new songs stood out on radio from what came before. I remember hearing "Dirty Creature" for the first time and thinking how different and funky it sounded. Wellington radio station 2ZM played a number of tracks from the album one weekend, a week before it was released, and gave away the LP. As a young boy and Enz fan, I was thrilled to win a copy and enjoyed having it my possession before it was available in the shops.

 

Sorry about the delay folks, blame Game of Thrones taking up my morning! I’ll put up another song in an hour or soafter my son Goes to bed!

 

Our votes for "Dirty Creature:

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5-6
Average score: 4.64

 

Today's song is "Giant Heartbeat", written by Neil Finn and Nigel Griggs.

 

Noel was a fine live drummer. I think both he and the band wanted him up on the front line.

 

I love Giant Heartbeat. It’s Neil’s first song that isn’t overtly commercial. It’s great to hear him flexing different songwriting muscles.

4/5.