Album review: Meat Puppets, Rat Farm (Megaforce)

Meat Puppets, Rat Farm (Megaforce)

Curt Kirkwood describes Rat Farm as “real blown-up folk music”, and it's as good a description as any – if by “blown-up” he means “spaced out” or some similar druggy epithet.

It's 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. Stoner anthem “One More Drop” is an invitation to “get messed up” swathed in sparkly mirrorball guitar. The laidback rural air blows fresh throughout: there's a jaunty campfire charm to the C&W trotter “Sometimes Blue”, a courtly gentility to the acoustic guitar lines in “Waiting”, and Byrds-y arpeggios adorn “Time and Money”.

Download: One More Drop; You Don't Know; Time And Money; Waiting