Meat Puppets II
| Meat Puppets II | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Meat Puppets | ||||
| Released | April 1984 | |||
| Recorded | April – May, 1983 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, cowpunk, punk rock | |||
| Length | 29:57 (original) 48:01 (reissue) |
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| Label | SST Records | |||
| Meat Puppets chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Entertainment Weekly | A− |
| NME | 8/10 |
| Rolling Stone |  |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 10/10 |
| The Village Voice | A− |
Meat Puppets II is the second album by the Phoenix, Arizona band the Meat Puppets, released in 1984. It is a departure from their self-titled debut album, which consisted largely of noisy hardcore with unintelligible vocals. It covers many genres from country-style rock ("Magic Toy Missing", "Climbing", Lost") to slow acoustic songs ("Plateau", "Oh Me") to psychedelic guitar effects ("Aurora Borealis") to hard rock ("Lake of Fire").
The cover art is by Curt Kirkwood and Neal Holliday.
Rykodisc reissued the album in 1999 with extra tracks and b-sides, including a cover of the Rolling Stones' Aftermath-era track "What To Do."
The Meat Puppets' SST labelmates The Minutemen covered "Lost" on the live EP Tour-Spiel and their last studio album, 3-Way Tie (For Last). Three of the album's songs were covered by Nirvana (as the Kirkwood brothers joined them onstage) during their "Unplugged" show for MTV ("Plateau", "Oh, Me", and "Lake of Fire").
Kurt Loder in an April 1984 review in Rolling Stone described Meat Puppets II as "one of the funniest and most enjoyable albums" of the year, feeling that the band had developed beyond thrash music to become "a kind of cultural trash compacter" in which they blend head-banging with "a bit of the Byrds...Hendrix-style guitar...and...Blonde on Blonde-style wordsmithing". In his review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau felt that Curt Kirkwood had combined "the amateur and the avant-garde with a homely appeal", which resulted in a "calmly demented country music" in a "psychedelic" vein.
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