New Favourite Thing!

Bliss! I've finally gotten around to getting a copy of this - Split Enz's Rootin' Tootin' Luton tapes. It comes from a bunch of Split Enz demo sessions recorded in the late '70s but it wasn't released until 2007 after the Split Enz fan club rallied round the cause.

And I'm so so glad they did. It's a damn fine album, heavier and a little rockier than a lot of Split Enz stuff of that time. It still has some of the baroque flourishes and experimentation of early Split Enz, but it's also a really gutsy album. In fact, I think the word 'meaty' would be an apt adjective to use here. Mmmm, meaty.

It's totally become one of my favourite Split Enz albums ever, and how rad (yes, I just used the word 'rad', deal with it) is that - to not only find additional material from one of my favourite bands, but also to find that it's really good. Artists release bonus material aaaall the time, but normally I ignore it because on the whole it's pretty crap and one is left with a profound understanding of why the artist chose not to release it in the first place. But this here is the exception to the rule and has made me very very happy.