While I’m on the subjects of the HMV years, writing The Phoenix Effect and favorite albums from 1998, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention another album that even more play in the back room of the store and especially during my writing sessions.

Most of you already know their popular hit “Counting Blue Cars” from 1995’s Pet Your Friends album, which got considerable play on radio and MTV at the start of 1996. It still gets play now and again (and shows up on the music loop at my day job), sadly they were treated as a one hit wonder soon after.

Which is too bad, because their sophomore record, And You Think You Know What Life’s About, finds the band with an edge and looking to expand their sound. As a member comments in the promo video found on the CD itself, after playing on the road for several months, they found themselves playing harder and stronger, spilling even more of their emotions and strength into their instruments than before, and it shows on this album. They holed up in the hills of Santa Barbara and came out with one hell of a great record that sadly got too easily dismissed by jaded critics expecting another “Blue Cars”. And to add insult to injury, the UNI/PolyGram merger that year pretty much dried up any promotion or support they’d had before.

Right off the bat it kicks off with “Stay Awake”, bashing drums and chunky noisy guitars, slapping you in the face to get your attention. This isn’t going to be your typical mid-90s radio-friendly alt rock album. Even the second track “Once in a While” might start off as a quiet ballad, but soon changes tack and turns up the volume. And third track “Bottom of the Floor” slides further into that harsher realm of discomfort and displacement, which seems to be the theme of this record. (This track is also where the album title comes from.)

We’re given a reprieve on the fifth track, the absolutely gorgeous “Until I Wake Up.” Originally released in demo form as a b-side to the “Counting Blue Cars” single, this is singer JR Richards revealing his deepest fears and weaknesses: the inability to control your life to the point where the dream world seems to be the only escape. It’s one of his most famous songs as a songwriter and he’s performed it and rerecorded it several times over the years in his solo career. I remember hearing this one and thinking this would be an absolutely perfect fit for the Mendaihu Universe, and so it sits nicely on the Songs from the Eden Cycle Vol 4 mixtape.

“5 Star Day” brings us back into the fold like a wake-up call, maybe one that’s needed but unwanted, reaching out in hope that the new day will be much better than the previous one. Maybe not, as it’s soon followed by the sinister “Truth Serum” bringing you back to the harsh reality that you were hoping to escape.

“So Blind” takes us off on a trip we might not want to go on, but we’re already strapped in and off on yet another adventure…very much like the never-ending exhaustion of touring as a band. You’re hoping for some kind of stability and tranquility, but you’re probably not going to find it here. And it takes you through to the brittle mind of “Gone Upside Down” and the psychedelic otherworld of “So Much Time.” It’s a trip that you don’t so much go on as you’re taken on whether you want it or not. And eventually you resurface drained yet somehow invigorated again with “The Bridge Song.”

And to end the album, you’re reminded: you’re the pop-star here, you’re performing for us, so make it happen! Ending the record with the hard-edged and snarky “Pop Guru” is an interesting choice, considering it not only riffs on the Beatles’ 1967 interest in the Maharishi, but uses it as a metaphor for reminding you of your place as a touring musician.

For an album that got little promotion yet had a few tracks used on the hit TV show Charmed, it’s a surprisingly strong and consistent record from start to finish. [They would have other songs featured on TV shows and movies, and singer JR Richards would perform a version of ‘Counting Blue Cars’ himself on an episode of How I Met Your Mother.] “Once in a While” and “Stay Awake” might have gotten some minor play on radio, but there were no music videos, official singles or any other promotion given.

And yet somehow it remains a major favorite of the band’s fans because of that. It’s an underdog record that’s harder than Pet Your Friends and less commercial than 2002’s comeback Opaline (which did in fact get sizeable promotional help). It’s a quirky record that’s more like a deep cut than a hit single, and that’s partly why I love it so much.

Some years back ordered another copy of it from JR Richards himself (signed, of course) and let him know how much the album meant to me, especially during my years writing The Phoenix Effect and its eventual remake as the Bridgetown Trilogy. He was touched by that and appreciated that he’d helped inspire someone in that way. And indeed, it got a ton of play during those basement writing sessions in the late 90s and early 00s (and yes, also during the mid-10s revisions and self-release of the books). It’s the one of theirs I return to the most as well.