Rat Farm

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

Rat Farm
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)

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. Gardner, Noel. "Meat Puppets - "Rat Farm"". NME. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  2. 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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