Mental As Anything - Garage (1998)

Celebrating their 21st anniversary, the Mentals continue to please with this follow-up to their 1995 comeback album, Liar Liar Pants on Fire. Though not as pleasing as that album, Garage is still a fine celebration of 21 years of the same five guys playing music together. "Just My Luck," the leadoff track and first single, is prime Martin Plaza. "Calling Colin," written and sung by Peter O'Doherty, was the second single taken from the album and should have been a huge success worldwide, being one of the catchiest pop songs released during the '90s. Besides the two singles, there are some great songs on Garage ("Does She," "Lemon Peel," "Up & Down," "Money," and "Complaining" are all worthy of mentioning), but the album is weighed down by a few too many meat-and-potatoes rockers that make the toes tap but don't inspire the listener to get involved as deeply as they would like. Initial Australian copies included a bonus anniversary disc featuring six tracks from their back catalog (though nothing rare or unreleased). ~ Stephen Schnee