Mental As Anything - Liar Liar Pants on Fire (1995)

With their first album of new material in six years, Mental As Anything came out with all guns blazing. Dropping the slick production that turned off many of their fans during the late '80s, the Mentals returned to the basic sound of their first two albums, sounding more raw than ever before. With renewed vigor, the band let the songs speak (sing?) for themselves, keeping everything as basic as possible. "Mr. Natural," the first single, leads the album off in the right direction with a thumping, glam-like beat and a basic, albeit catchy, melody courtesy of Martin Plaza. Reg Mombassa's "Nigel" is up next and features one of the best, if not most morbid, opening lines in recent Mentals history ("Oh, by the way, Nigel died yesterday!"). "Surfer Joe Revisited" updates the tale and finds the legendary Surfer Joe trading in his old life and spending more time surfing the Internet ("He had a moptop/Now, he's got a laptop"). "Marianne" is about the legendary Marianne Faithfull. Greedy Smith's breezy acoustic-based "To the Mountains" is one of the best things he's written yet. "Too Down to Cry" is the song Chris Isaak has been trying to write for years. The band even finds time to do a cover of Wreckless Eric's "Whole Wide World." A fantastic return to form by this rock monster with five heads and a whole lot of talent. ~ Stephen Schnee