So when I heard that they were releasing a new album, Lollipop, earlier this year I thought what a great chance to get back into a band I had loved so much. I'm glad I did. Lollipop is not only an outstanding album for the Meat Puppets, it's an outstanding album period.
The Meat Puppets influence upon popular rock music is undeniable. Any casual listener can hear the way many 90's bands "borrowed" certain audible elements from the Puppets style of music making. As I began going further and further back into the 'Pups catalog I noticed just how many different styles of song writing they honed during their 30+ year career. As I was cruising around listening to their 1984 album Meat Puppets II, a friend (who asked to remain nameless) turned and said to me, "I didn't know the Meat Puppets covered Nirvana!?" I had to stare in shock.
Brother's Curt and Cris Kirkwood (guitarist/vocalist/main songwriter and bassist/vocalist/songwriter respectively), the main driving force in the Meat Puppets, have lived about as rocknroll a lifestyle as one could live. During the Puppet's history they've gone through it all: constant touring, a massive ingestion of drugs, arrests, loved ones overdosing, rotating drummers, two band breakup's, children, and even a prison stint when Cris served a year and half up in Florence for assaulting a security guard (who actually shot him twice).
Lollipop is the celebration of all that is. The ups, downs, and in-betweens are all given their fair share of the spotlight on this album. It seems to capture the collected wisdom of a band that has lived through it all and continues to move forward. The songs are unmistakeably Arizona in sound while also bridging into the most universal of American music. As the first track "Incomplete" makes plain, "Hard as a sun who rides in the western wind. My hands in the fire but I can't feel the heat. Torn from the wind. Torn from the very breath I am made of. And incomplete."
The album has brighter moments too. On "Lantern" Curt sings, "In the Canyon, getting hard to see the light. Bring a lantern, setting a fire to the night." There is insight as well. One of my favorite tracks, "Town," offers this, "Don't mind the memories, they will only drag you down in a one trick town."
Lollipop, an upbeat-melody-driven rocker of an album, is a great addition to the Meat Puppets' library. It offers on-point, satirical comedy and hushed, midnight waltzes - all delivered with a touch of psychedelia. If you've enjoyed the Meat Puppets in the past or have just heard of them, pick up a Lollipop and suckle its sweetness.
