Rat Farm

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Rat Farm
Meat Puppets Rat Farm.jpg
Studio album by
Meat Puppets
ReleasedApril 16, 2013
Recorded2012-2013
Genre
Length45:52
LabelMegaforce
ProducerCurt Kirkwood
Meat Puppets chronology
Lollipop
(2011) 		Rat Farm
(2013) 		Dusty Notes
(2019)

Rat Farm is the fourteenth full-length studio album by the Meat Puppets. It was released on April 16, 2013, through Megaforce Records.[2]

Background and recording[]

Background and writing[]

On writing the music Curt Kirkwood remarked: "I tried to write stuff that would stand on its own — just the chords and the melodies, and play it kind of straight... I think that was the guiding boundary that I gave myself. It was one of those things where a lot of times, in the past especially, Cris (bassist Cris Kirkwood) would go, ‘Well, that’s all there is? Let’s put a prog rock part in the middle.’ But I tried to hold it off as much as I could."[2]

Content[]

Musical style[]

Lucy Jones of British music publication NME adjudged Rat Farm as "gently fried country-rock and psychedelia" and its guitar solos to be "Neil Young-worthy".[1]

Curt Kirkwood, the band's singer/guitarist and primary songwriter, described the album as "real blown-out folk music".[3]

Reception[]

As of June 2013, based on 17 reviews, Rat Farm has a score of 74 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[4] This is the highest score of their albums released since 2000.[5] The Independent described the album as "dizzying psychedelic country in finest Meat Puppets tradition, full of slightly off-centre harmonies in Grateful Dead manner, and plenty of Kirkwood's swirling, trippy guitar."[6] Allmusic said: "The tracks on their 14th outing are the closest they've come in a long time to the colorful, no-frills brand of twangy alt-rock and informal punk (with hints of Americana, country, folk, and prog) that they instilled on their SST records."[7] The Austin Chronicle said that Curt Kirkwood "continues penning some of the strongest, sweetest, and compellingly twisted material of his already storied songwriting career," and that "[t]here's enough distorted weirdness, easygoing melodies, and guitar both hard and jangly to demonstrate why the Meat Puppets influenced both Nirvana and R.E.M."[8]

Track listing[]

No.TitleLength
1."Rat Farm"3:54
2."One More Drop"3:46
3."Down"3:25
4."Leave Your Head Alone"4:20
5."Again"3:25
6."You Don’t Know"4:13
7."Waiting"3:14
8."Time and Money"3:50
9."Sometimes Blue"3:48
10."Original One"4:12
11."River Rose"3:22
12."Sweet"4:22
Total length:45:52

Personnel[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Gardner, Noel. "Meat Puppets - "Rat Farm"". NME. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Kyle McGovern, Feb. 8, 2013, Spin. Meat Puppets 'Play it Straight' on 14th Studio Album 'Rat Farm'. retrieved Feb. 19, 2013
  3. ^ The Meat Puppets Create 'Real Blown-Out Folk Music' on 'Rat Farm' - Album Premiere, John Blistein, Rolling Stone, April 14, 2013. Retrieved April 17, 2013.
  4. ^ "Rat Farm Reviews". Metacritic. 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  5. ^ "Meat Puppets Profile". Metacritic. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  6. ^ Andy Gill (2013-04-12). "Album review: Meat Puppets, Rat Farm (Megaforce) - Reviews - Music". The Independent. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  7. ^ Lymangrover, Jason (2013-04-16). "Rat Farm - Meat Puppets : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  8. ^ "Review: Meat Puppets - Music". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
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