31 May 2023 - 0 Comments

AudioCulture are very excited to reveal that Split Enz’s 1980 album True Colours has taken the top spot in the publicly voted AudioCulture Classic NZ Album Readers Poll for 2023.

The poll launched on AudioCulture Iwi Waiata on Monday 1 May to celebrate the site’s 10th birthday, which is today, 31 May 2013, the last day of Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa NZ Music Month.

True Colours – the band’s fifth album – was a popular choice from the start. The 1980 release includes the trans-Tasman No.1 hit I Got You, plus Top 40 hits Shark Attack and I Hope I Never. As voter Darryn Harkness eloquently put it, "I think Split Enz could quite possibly be the crown jewel of NZ rock 'n' roll...and this album has it all, the songs, energy and drama!"

In 1980 True Colours was a shot in the arm that re-energised Split Enz. The album launched the band into widespread popularity and the top of the New Zealand album charts, remaining in the Top 40 for 79 weeks. The Split Enz line-up on True Colours was Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner, Neil Finn, Noel Crombie, Nigel Griggs and Malcolm Green.

In a 2020 piece on the album for AudioCulture, Gary Steel writes “... 40 years later it remains what it always was: a poptastic selection of great tunes that remains fresh ...”

Fiona McQuarrie voted all the way from Canada, and says, "It's a classic that sounds like New Zealand, and sounds like the world at the same time."

Split Enz also claimed the number three spot in the AudioCulture Classic NZ Album Readers Poll, with their 1975 release, Mental Notes.

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