Fundamental (Mental As Anything album)


Fundamental or Fundamental As Anything is the fifth studio album released by Australian rock/pop group Mental As Anything. The album, produced by Richard Gottehrer was released on Regular Records in March 1985, which peaked at #3 on the Australian Kent Music Report albums charts.

Recording

The band had intended to use Gary Langan as producer. They admired his work with Art of Noise and were happy with the "wild" album he had planned. O'Doherty said, "He took on too much at the time and he got zonked out at all the stress and he pulled out something like five days before he was meant to be on the plane." The replacement was Richard Gottehrer, but they had to wait for a gap in his schedule, delaying the recording. O'Doherty said, "It’s too long because we’ve got four songwriters in the band and we ended up with over 30 songs demoed for Fundamental, more than enough for two albums."

Singles

The first single from the album, "You're So Strong", which peaked at #11 in Australia also charted in the Top 30 of the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. It was followed by their biggest Australian hit "Live It Up" which climbed to #2. The album spawned two additional singles, "Date with Destiny" in September and "Big Wheel" in November. "Live It Up" reached the Top 40 in European charts including the UK where it peaked at #3, #4 in Norway, and #6 in Germany, after it featured in the 1986 Australian film "Crocodile" Dundee.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

Chart positions