True Colours (Split Enz album)

For other uses, see True Colors (disambiguation).
True Colours
Studio album by Split Enz
Released 25 June 1980
Recorded Armstrong Studios, Melbourne 1979
Genre New wave
Length 39:48
Label Mushroom Records Melbourne (AUS)
Chrysalis (USA)
Polydor (NZL)
A&M (International)
Producer David Tickle
Split Enz chronology
Frenzy
(1979)		 True Colours
(1980)		 Waiata/Corroboree
(1981)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Smash Hits5/10[2]

True Colours, the fifth album released by New Zealand band Split Enz, was their first major commercial success. Released in 1980, the album featured more mature songwriting from Neil Finn. Credited to him is the album's New Zealand and Australian #1 single, "I Got You," which also broke them internationally. The US release of the album featured "Shark Attack" and "I Got You" in reversed positions due to the latter's success on the single charts.

Originally, the band thought "Missing Person" to be the album's standout track, not realizing "I Got You" would become the hit. "I Hope I Never" was mixed differently for the Australian single release, with strengthened percussion. "Nobody Takes Me Seriously," "What's the Matter With You" and "Poor Boy" were released as singles in the northern hemisphere.

The album was initially released in four colour combinations – yellow and blue, red and green, purple and yellow, and blue and orange – but would ultimately be given another four makeovers with releases in lime green and pink, hot purple and burnt orange, gold and platinum (to mark its sales milestones), and finally yellow, blue and red.

When it was later released on the A&M label, wild, imaginative shapes and patterns covered the vinyl using a technique known as "laser-etching". When light hit the record, these designs would protrude and spin about the room. The album was the first to ever use this technique, originally designed to discourage the creation of counterfeit copies.

A synthesizer melody played in "I Wouldn't Dream of It" was first introduced in an early Split Enz recording, aptly titled "The Instrumental".

True Colours was remastered by Eddie Rayner and re-released on two occasions. Firstly in 2003, and yet again with the rest of the Split Enz catalogue on 20 May 2006 with the bonus tracks: Things and Two Of a Kind. In October 2010, the album was listed at number 22 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums, despite being a New Zealand production.[3]

Track listing

Close up of the laser etched A&M release

All songs written and composed by Tim Finn unless noted. 

Side A
No. Title Length
1. "Shark Attack"   2:52
2. "I Got You" (Neil Finn) 3:24
3. "What's the Matter with You" (N. Finn) 3:02
4. "Double Happy" ([Instrumental] Eddie Rayner) 3:15
5. "I Wouldn't Dream of It"   3:14
6. "I Hope I Never"   3:24
Side B
No. Title Length
7. "Nobody Takes Me Seriously"   3:32
8. "Missing Person" (N. Finn) 3:32
9. "Poor Boy"   3:19
10. "How Can I Resist Her"   3:26
11. "The Choral Sea" ([Instrumental] T. Finn, N. Finn, Rayner, Noel Crombie, Malcolm Green, Nigel Griggs) 4:29

NOTE: On the A&M version (SP-4822), tracks 1 & 2 are inverted. The listing above is the original Mushroom (AUS) / Polydor (NZ) listing.

2006 Re-release

True Colours Tour, Commodore Ballroom.

All songs written and composed by Tim Finn unless noted. 

Side A
No. Title Length
1. "Shark Attack"   3:00
2. "I Got You" (Neil Finn) 3:29
3. "What's the Matter with You" (N. Finn) 3:09
4. "Double Happy [Instrumental]" (Rayner) 3:27
5. "I Wouldn't Dream of It"   3:22
6. "I Hope I Never"   4:34
7. "Nobody Takes Me Seriously"   3:30
8. "Missing Person" (N. Finn) 3:39
9. "Poor Boy"   3:28
10. "How Can I Resist Her"   3:33
11. "The Choral Sea [Instrumental]" (Split Enz) 4:51
12. "Things" (N.Finn. Single, released October 1979) 2:48
13. "Two of a Kind" (Recorded at Harlequin Studios, Auckland, June 1979) 3:41

Reception

Reviewed in Roadrunner at the time of release, it was described as, "a thoughtful, reflective album. The approach to songs is more straight forward, more serious, than the Split Enz we are all used to."[4]

Chart positions

Country Peak position
Australia[5] 1
New Zealand[6] 1
USA[7] 40
UK[8] 38
Canada[9] 10

Personnel

Split Enz

Technical

External links

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Hepworth, David. "Albums". Smash Hits. No. 7–20 August, 1980. p. 28.
  3. ↑ O'Donnell, John; Creswell, Toby; Mathieson, Craig (October 2010). 100 Best Australian Albums. Prahran, Vic: Hardie Grant Books. ISBN 978-1-74066-955-9.
  4. ↑ Robertson, Donald (8 February 1980). "Albums". Roadrunner (Parkside, SA): 21.
  5. ↑ Kent, David. Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, N.S.W. (1993). ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  6. ↑ "New Zealand Charts". Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  7. ↑ "All Music Guide". Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  8. ↑ "UK Chart Stats". Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  9. ↑ "RPM Canadian Charts". Retrieved 13 July 2011.
Preceded by
Off the Wall by Michael Jackson		 Australian Kent Music Report number-one album
14 April – 22 June 1980 		Succeeded by
Can't Stop the Music by Village People
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