Mental As Anything: A Mental Collection

Does this have ‘Stanley’ on it, from the 1984 movie Stanley. Rare as hell but a catchy tune.

Saw them co-Headline with The Bongos @ First Ave in Minneapolis in 1983 I think. Loose, fun show! Threw a coupla beers down with them afterwards!

My Mental’s boxset arrived two hours ago.

For £17, you get (almost) their first five albums as they were badly mastered in the late 80’s for their original CD releases. So you’ll get all the dynamics, but I’ve always suspected that the original master tapes weren’t used back then as there is audible tape drop out – and these discs are almost straight copies.

They come in card sleeves as is obvious from the above photo. That’s it. The front cover is reproduced and that’s it. There was so much artwork for these albums that has either never been reproduced or badly reproduced. The whole lot has been scrapped for this boxset.
The notes from Greedy Smith in the booklet are minimal. The only photos of the band are of Greedy and Martin Plaza who are the only current founder members.
Nothing about Dave Twohill, Peter O’Doherty or Reg Mombassa. Look up Reg Mombassa’s artwork. You’ll have all seen it. Remember Public Image Limited’s “The Greatest Hits, So Far” from 1990? Reg did that cover…and many others.
He ended up doing the majority of artwork for Mental’s releases. If it wasn’t Reg then Peter would have done it, or Martin, or Greedy. All missing from this boxset.

Another problem is – the 4th album “Creatures Of Leisure” is the wrong version. Edsel have managed to press the European / American / Canadian version which has the tracks in a different order and some replaced by others.
Gone from the original Australian release are “Space To Let”, “Not Enough” and “Country In The Concrete”, replaced on the Europe / America (and replicated here!) by the non album single “Working For The Man” (a 1983 Roy Orbison cover) and it’s b-side “Seems Alright To Me” by Martin Plaza.
On the original album, the last track listed is “Let’s Not Get Sentimental”. Hidden at the end of that track was a very slow, laid back version of a Mental’s song from their first album called “Business And Pleasure”. The very first line is “We were almost creatures of leisure” – hence the album title to the 4th album. In Europe / America, the re-recording (with its backing of lawn mower noises…the back cover was of a lawn mower) was ditched in favour of the original fast version from the first album. So Edsel have faithfully reproduced an identical track on two different CD’s, just like Tears For Fears “Broken Revisited” instead of “Broken” being pressed onto “The Hurting” boxset two years ago.

The albums are great, “Creatures Of Leisure” is troubled by bad drum machines, but they were five talented musicians whose back catalogue deserves to be released on CD PROPERLY. Plus b-sides and remixes and artwork…from the original mastertapes.

0.5 out of 100 to Edsel / Demon for effort.

The box does appear to say “Volume I”. More to come?

I’m afraid Elvis Costello only produced one single (no albums), “I Didn’t Mean To Be Mean” from 1982. It was a single only so won’t be on these reissues.

Their first album “Get Wet” from 1979 was self titled outside Australia and New Zealand for some reason.
The third album “Cats And Dogs” from 1981 was totally remixed (for no apparent reason) and repackaged in 1982 for the rest of the world and renamed “If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?”.

Shame their debut E.P. and the early b-sides have been missed out.

id be more tempted by the addition of the various 12″ mixes that must be available

just because some of you only know two songs does not mean they are rubbish!
I will name 5 other songs by them go on youtube and have a listen they are really a great group
1.If You Leave Me,Can I Come Too
2.THE NIPS ARE GETTING BIGGER
3.SO STRONG
4.He’s Just No Good For You
5.Spirit Got Lost
Best Of Mental As Anything cd is a good pick up and probably a little cheaper

Elvis Costello produced a couple of these early LP’s and is a real fan of the band.

There’s some excellent songs in this lot that don’t sound a million miles removed from Costello’s first few records come to think of it.

I only know one track by them and I didn’t like that very much…

universal released a 5 cd boxset last year