Second Thoughts (album)

Second Thoughts
Studio album by Split Enz
Released	August 1976 (AUS & NZ) September 1976 (UK) January 1977 (US)
Recorded	April–May 1976
Studio	Basing Street, London
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	41:48
Label	Mushroom Records (AUS/NZ), Chrysalis Records (Rest of world)
Producer	Phil Manzanera
Split Enz chronology
Mental Notes (1975) Second Thoughts (1976) Dizrythmia (1977)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Second Thoughts is the second studio album by New Zealand art rock band Split Enz. It was recorded in London with Roxy Music's guitarist Phil Manzanera producing the album.

The band's first album Mental Notes had not originally been released outside Australasia, therefore Second Thoughts was the band's first album release in Europe and North America. In both territories, the album was titled Mental Notes and featured a different album cover, which was a reworked version of the original Mental Notes cover (for comparison see original and remake). In the reworked cover, Wally Wilkinson's image was replaced with that of Robert Gillies, and some band members are shown with newer haircuts: Phil Judd was now bald, and Tim Finn had his sides shaved.

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Late Last Night"	Phil Judd	4:03
2.	"Walking Down a Road" (*)	Tim Finn, Phil Judd	5:22
3.	"Titus" (*)	Phil Judd	3:15
4.	"Lovey Dovey" (†)	Tim Finn, Phil Judd	3:06
5.	"Sweet Dreams"	Phil Judd	5:04

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Stranger Than Fiction" (*)	Tim Finn, Phil Judd	7:07
2.	"Time for a Change" (*)	Phil Judd	4:05
3.	"Matinee Idyll"	Tim Finn, Phil Judd	2:56
4.	"The Woman Who Loves You" (†)	Tim Finn, Phil Judd	6:50

Track notes

"Late Last Night" was initially a non-album single in April 1976 (in-between Mental Notes and Second Thoughts), the song was re-recorded for Second Thoughts.

Tracks marked * are re-recordings of songs that first appeared on Mental Notes.

Tracks marked † were recorded during the Mental Notes sessions but were not included on that album, and were re-recorded for Second Thoughts.

A 1974 demo of "Lovey Dovey" was released on the 1979 album The Beginning of the Enz .

"Matinee Idyll", under its original title "129", had been the B-side of the band's second single "Sweet Talkin' Spoon Song" in 1973, and was re-recorded for Second Thoughts. The original version appears on The Beginning of the Enz.

Personnel

Split Enz

• Tim Finn – vocals, piano on "Stranger Than Fiction"
• Phil Judd – vocals, guitars, mandolin
• Jonathan Michael Chunn – bass, piano on "Titus"
• Noel Crombie – percussion
• Emlyn Crowther – drums
• Robert Gillies – saxophone, trumpet
• Edward Rayner – keyboards

Additional personnel

• Miles Golding – violin on "Stranger Than Fiction" and "Matinee Idyll"
• Ian Sharp – cello on "Matinee Idyll"
• Rhett Davies, Guy Bidmead – Recording engineers
• Phil Manzanera – producer
• Rhett Davies – Mixing engineer
• John Prew – Front cover photograph
• Split Enz – Back snaps
• Special Thanks To Dave Russell and Wally Wilkinson

Charts

Chart (1976)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report) [2]	25
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [3]	18

References

1. Allmusic review
2. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 . St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. p. 288. ISBN   0-646-11917-6. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988.
3. "Charts.nz – Split Enz – Mental Notes". Hung Medien. Retrieved 15 November 2020.