The Dollar Bin, Vol. 1 : Mental as Anything – Creatures of Leisure

This is part one in a series devoted to perfectly good records that, when found, are usually in the dollar bin, deemed unworthy to rub covers with Journey and Eagles albums.  For me, Creatures of Leisure is one of the first albums that comes to mind; in my years at Love Garden I regularly stickered this album at or below the minimum price we were using, adding a loving note about what a fine album I thought it was, then sent it out to sit in the bins for a couple of years until it was banished to the land of Firestone Christmas LPs and the lesser works of Helen Reddy.

Mental as Anything were an Australian pub-rock band who probably got their American record deal as a result of the brief scramble to find the next Men at Work.  (Lest that seem laughable, I remind you that in the early 80s, Men at Work, besides receiving a ton of reviews that ranged from approving to enthusiastic, had two albums that charted at #1 and #3, as well as four top-10 singles.)  Indeed, the two bands are more similar than they are different, sharing a post-punk economy of composition but very little sonic threat to the old order, as well as a peculiarly Australian vibe that occasionally veers close to 70s US soft rock, but somehow remains palatable.  I bought this album when it came out in 1983, either because I had heard “If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too,” the standout track from their mostly dispensable debut album, or because they were on A&M’s Maiden Australia sampler, or most likely, now that I think about it, because they received a good review in Rolling Stone.  It has easily survived countless purges over the years, but I found a 99-cent CD copy that I’ve been listening to in my car for the past week and I am forced to conclude that this is one of the better lost new-wave records of its era.

The Trouser Press Record Guide describes Creatures of Leisure as “an enormously sad record,” and that’s certainly true, but if you’re not paying attention to the lyrics and focusing instead on the sun-warmed sound of the band and production, the melancholia might slip right past you.  Mental as Anything hit all of the reference points that we’re used to from the early 80s work of Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello:  Rockabilly, country-western, power pop, reggae-lite, etc.  What elevates this album are the songs.

The first four tracks alone make the album worth purchasing:  The opener Spirit Got Lost is sung in a cemetery by a friendly, if anxious ghost and contains perhaps the album’s best couplet:  “My spirit got lost, now something is missing/All the people ’round here are too bony for kissing.”  Float Away and Bitter to Swallow are the most direct nods to country and rockabilly; the former has a great guitar riff and some tasty soloing, the latter has another lyrical gem:  “The thoughts that I get, they will be bitter and strong/like the coffee you get in motels.”  The single Brain, Brain pleads to that organ to provide an immediate solution to the singer’s romantic crisis. The songs don’t wallow in their sadness, they understate with likable dollops of self-effacing humor.

For years I stuck mostly to side 1 of this album, because the aforementioned songs were so strong.  My loss.  Good stuff all over the place here.  Fiona has a nice loping reggae groove and cool backing vocals.  Drinking of Her Lips is a dead ringer for Nick Lowe, and one of the album’s two expressions of unfettered joy.  Close Again, Let’s  Not Get Sentimental, Nothing’s Going Right Today, and Red to Green also make the iPod cut.

The US version of the album substitutes an unnecessary cover of Roy Orbison’s Working For the Man and the middling Seems Alright to Me for a couple of songs on the Australian release, one of which, Country In the Concrete was probably left off due to it’s specific relevance to the band’s country of origin.   It is the most revved-up thing on the album and is well worth hearing.  The essentials are on both versions, both of which include the title track (which appears as a hidden bonus on the CD), a (guess what) humorous and melancholic number about the band’s transition from bar band to professional musicians.

Creatures of Leisure is an entertaining and surprisingly moving album by a skilled band of writers and players who never, ever oversell everything.  The album is bolstered by a sympathetic production that they didn’t always have on subsequent efforts.  It’s hard to imagine that fans of the artists mentioned above wouldn’t find plenty to like here.

Learn more about Mental as Anything here.