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CD review: Meat Puppets
Matthew Rogers
Meat Puppets
‘Sewn Together!’
(Megaforce)
B
Thanks to their early association with legendary hardcore punk label SST Records, rock trio the Meat Puppets have long shared a place in the history books among ’80s underground success stories such as Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen, Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. But where those bands combined crushing guitars with alternating waves of rage and melancholia, the Meat Puppets, led by brothers Cris and Curt Kirkwood, have blended punk with country and psychedelia to forge an oddball take on Americana that many a desperate music critic has dubbed “cowpunk.”
The lovably easy-going, midtempo form of rock has served them well since breakout 1984 album “Meat Puppets II” and makes for a disarming listen in their 12th and latest, “Sewn Together.” Across 12 rambling, charming, gently psychedelic tracks of alt-country, the Puppets reassert themselves as an act whose work is rarely grandiose or revelatory but a low-key treat best enjoyed casually on the porch with a beer in hand. When Curt Kirkwood advises us on “I’m Not Into You” that “The things I say and do/Should be of no concern to you,” it serves less as angry rejoinder and more as a good-natured guide to listening.
The opening, title track sets an ideal precedent for the rest of the album, with its traditional Meat Puppets guitar/bass interplay and sing-along harmonies that wouldn’t be out of place on “Sesame Street.” Similarly sunny crowd-pleaser “I’m Not Into You” is a rollicking country ditty with a toe-tapping banjo solo. Single “Rotten Shame,” an upbeat rocker imbued with a catchy guitar riff, might be the band’s best attempt at an accessible crowd-pleaser since 1994’s minor radio hit “Backwater.”
The many forays into ballads are less successful. “Go to Your Head” commits popular music’s cardinal sin — being boring — while closer “Love Mountain,” winning tambourine aside, packs an album’s worth of cliches into four minutes.
Fortunately, the missteps are few and far between. Even weak tracks like “Clone” sport odd pleasures, like its nonsensical, surreal fairy tale lyrics, or the cheerful use of whistling on the otherwise somewhat-typical honky-tonk tune “The Monkey and the Snake.” That leaves “Sewn Together” with more than enough high points to recommend it to longtime Meat Puppets fans, though newcomers should start with the more consistent “Meat Puppets II” or “Up on the Sun” and double back only if they like what they hear.
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