Frenzy (Split Enz album)

The album was primarily recorded at The Manor Studios in England between November and December in 1978; however, the song "I See Red" had already been recorded at Startling Studios (also in England) in July 1978.

There was a long delay between the writing of the songs and the recording. Tim Finn said, "We'd been waiting nearly a year to do it so we'd done all the demos, rehearsed it and written new songs. We'd been waiting too long. There's so much material. The album has twelve songs, but by the time we'd recorded it we'd written fifty more."[2]

The song "Abu Dhabi" created controversy due to the use of phrases such as "greedy westerners" and "oil barons", considered to be racist by some. As a result, the song's vocals were mixed softly, the offensive lyrics were not printed anywhere on the album and with the exception of a few shouts of 'Abu Dhabi' left in, completely mixed out of the 2006 remix of the track.

The cover artwork was done by the band's then lighting director, Raewyn Turner. Tim Finn said, "We deliberately wanted something of us without the costumes. There's no need to promote our image anymore – it's our music that needs to be promoted".[2]

Dissatisfaction with the original mix of the album led to Eddie Rayner remixing the album in 1981 for the North American and European releases. Side one comprised songs from the original release, while side two was a mix of songs recorded on the Rootin Tootin Luton Tapes from 1978. The sound of the original album apparently suffered from either bad tape stock used for the recording of the album, or misalignment of the tape machines used to record it – which limited what Rayner had to work with in the aforementioned 1981 remix. Release of the Rootin Tootin Luton Tapes finally eventuated in 2007 after many delays.

Subsequent developments in recording technology led to the remix of album track "Stuff and Nonsense" for the 1997 compilation Spellbound, and an entire remix of the album by Eddie Rayner released in 2006. Although the remix was available for a short while after its release in 2006, it is now a rarity – with fans having to pay large sums of money to obtain it. Mushroom Records did not make the remixed album available in digital format.

Reviewed in Roadrunner at the time of release, it was described as, "a very mature and subtle piece of vinyl ... although not as immediately stunning as the stark Mental Notes or as smoothly polished as the sleek Second Thoughts. This a creative work of appreciable depth." Particularly praised were "I See Red", "Give It A Whirl" and "Hermit McDermitt" (for its "unique demented hillbilly sound").[3]

All tracks written by Tim Finn, except where noted. "I See Red" was not included on the first 10,000 copies of this album, having not been a part of the same sessions. It was added subsequently on 1 March 1979.

Split Enz

• Tim Finn – vocals, acoustic guitar, piano
• Neil Finn – vocals, guitar
• Noel Crombie – percussion, backing vocals
• Eddie Rayner – keyboards, backing vocals, piano
• Malcolm Green – drums, backing vocals
• Nigel Griggs – bass, backing vocals