Thank God for Mental Illness is the fifth studio album by American psychedelic rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

[5] The liner notes state the album was recorded in "tangible lo-fi custom stereo" in order to "keep the faith.

During that week, the group would virtually camp out in the studio and in that short amount of time, somehow manage to record an entire album.

Perhaps this factor contributed to what turned out to be one of the band's greatest strengths; that is, their ability to simply create the music, without ever taking a self-conscious pause to question whether more bells and whistles here or there would make the album more appealing.

"[6]Marking another direction for the band, Thank God for Mental Illness has been described as an acoustic-based, psychedelic lo-fi album taking strong influences from country,[7] blues,[1] and folk.

"[9] Wondering Sound agreed the album was "country-tinged" and said it allowed the band to pioneer "a malevolent and incendiary take on psychedelic rock, one that located a sinister undercurrent in the hippy dream and coaxed it to the surface.

"[14] "Mental Illness shows a portrait of a band in the midst of their creative peak (which arguably spanned several albums), at a time when the songs just seemed to create themselves."

"[14] Opening song "Spanish Bee" was described by Tiny Mix Tapes as "a playfully dramatic number that eases nicely into the rest of the album.

"[19] A reviewer for Sentimentalist Mag said that, alongside Take it from the Man!, the album title was his favorite because it's a "simple, direct [statement] that immediately [reveals] the provocateur mind of main man/songwriter Anton Newcombe.

[25] Allmusic's Jason Ankeny praised the album, rating it four stars out of five and writing: "with Thank God for Mental Illness, their third collection of absolutely stunning music in less than a year, the Brian Jonestown Massacre parallels the prolific and effortless brilliance of the Rolling Stones at their fevered late-1960s peak; the sheer scope of their achievements is stunning – rarely are bands quite so productive, or quite so consistently amazing.

[...] while it lacks the blistering immediacy of their previous material, the album swaggers and struts with all of the group's usual attitude intact, coming complete with a loose, offhanded feel perfectly accenting the overall atmosphere of debauchery".

"[9] Drowned in Sound retrospectively comments that its "ably demonstrates" the band creating "some wonderful music pretty much unparalleled by any of their peers.

[17] Several years after its release, Sara Sherr for the Daily News said it might be the band's best album and described it as sounding "like an even blacker version of the Rolling Stones' Paint it Black.

[32] Musician Jo Rose, when asked by Louder Than War an interview about his goals for the future, made comment at the album, answering "I spent a lot of time trying to get attention from a label, quite directly and I got very down but then I just went back to writing.

I bought The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Thank God for Mental Illness – and its like a Q and A, like; ‘Did you try to sell your soul’ and Anton Newcome replied; ‘I tried but the queue was too long’ So I said fuck it!