:: Beetroot Stains

Mental As Anything

The Mentals have been laying low for a while, so it was a bit of a surprise to see a new album in the form of “Beetroot Stains” appear. There have been a few personnel changes within the band. Still present are main songwriters Martin Plaza and Greedy Smith, and guitarist Murray Cook. New members are David Barraclough on bass and David Twohill on drums, replacing Reg Mombassa and Peter O’Doherty – who both make guest appearances here. “Beetroot Stains” is an eclectic collection of songs. The opening track, “Fine Line” is a very dark and brooding piece of music, far removed from the familiar Mentals, good time rock. “Special Filter” is more upbeat, a bit bluegrass, with some nice slide guitar and harmonica. The album has a very rootsy, blues feel; a good example being “Stretchmarks”. Highlight tracks for me include “Special Filter”, the bluesy ”Stretchmarks”, “Different Girls”, and “Davey Jones Got the Part”, which sounds like something TISM might write. The appeal in this album lies in the experimental sound. It would have presumably been easy for the band to write a dozen more “Nips are Getting Bigger” and it would probably sell pretty well. However, they’ve shown there are more strings to their bows than that. It’s good to see the Mentals doing what they enjoy and this release shows they still have much to offer to music fans everywhere.