Split Enz - Mental Notes

Mental Notes is the second studio album by New Zealand rock band Split Enz, originally released in August 1976 via Mushroom Records.

Split Enz were a New Zealand rock band who were formed in 1972 by Tim Finn and Phil Judd, and had a variety of other members until they broke up in 1984 . Split Enz had eight songs listed in the APRA Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time, more than any other band.

Split Enz had ten albums (including seven studio albums) reach the top ten of the Official New Zealand Music Chart. From 1980 to 1982, the band had four number-one albums in New Zealand and three in Australia. It also had two albums break the top ten of the Canadian Albums Chart, two break the top fifty of the US Billboard 200, and one break the top fifty of the UK Albums Chart. The only number-one single for Split Enz was "I Got You" (1980), which topped the charts in both New Zealand and Australia. Other top-ten singles include "One Step Ahead" (1980), "History Never Repeats" (1981), "Dirty Creature" (1982), and "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" (1982).

Mental Notes (or Second Thoughts as it was named in Australia and New Zealand) is the 1976 studio album by Split Enz. Hailing from New Zealand, the group would go on to achieve international success with their unique new wave sound.

On Mental Notes, the group were joined in the studio by Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera and experimented with art-rock and neo-classical sounds.

Four of the songs on the album were reworked versions of songs from their 1975 debut album Mental Notes. Two other songs on the album had been first recorded during the Mental Notes sessions, but left off and re-recorded for Second Thoughts. There were two new songs, both written by Phil Judd, and a re-recording of an early Judd/Finn composition ("129"), which for the Second Thoughts version, was renamed "Matinee Idyll".

This album has been reissued on vinyl for the first time in 30 years and has been newly remastered from the original master tapes.

This album is a 2020 reissue on 180 gram white coloured vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeve, pressed in the UK via Demon Records.