True Colours remastered, released, re-loved

MISSING PERSON: Former postal assistant and later costume and hair designer, and percussionist with Split Enz, Noel Crombie’s characteristic manic but mute energy features on the iconoclastic six-piece’s remastered classic, True Colours. Picture by David Cran

by Dan Satherley, Newshub

The six-piece Kiwi band Split Enz’s classic album has been remastered and re-released to mark its 40th anniversary.

It contained the band’s breakthrough international hit, I Got You, penned by Neil Finn, as well as radio staples Poor Boy, I Hope I Never and Shark Attack.

“This was our ‘iconic’ album — it’s always had a unique sound — and to depart from that too much, or to do radically new mixes, would surely incur the wrath of fans and band members alike,” said keyboardist Eddie Rayner, who oversaw the new version.

“I approached the project with caution and some trepidation, with the maxim ‘the same, but better’.

“What a fantastic result, and a great feeling to top the charts 40 years on.”

Bandleader Tim Finn expressed surprise that the band, which formed in the early 1970s, still has enough fans to top the charts.

“Pop music is often seen as ephemeral. Something quickly replaced and soon forgotten.

“It’s a delight and a pleasure to know that an album we made in 1980 is in the 2020 charts. Who knew?”

Recorded in Melbourne, True Colours originally hit #1 in New Zealand in its second week on release.

It reached the top 40 across the world and spent 10 weeks on top of the Australian charts.

It’s the first time an album by a Kiwi band has topped the chart four decades after it came out. Earlier this year, Blindspott’s debut also hit #1, 18 years after it came out.

True Colours was the band’s fifth album, and third with the younger Finn brother Neil.

Taylor Swift’s Folklore was pushed into second place.