Huevos

About

The Meat Puppets’ most optimistic album begins with a declaration of satisfaction: “This is paradise / Ivory whales high on corn bread / Wind-filled sails fly to the door step.” No band has ever appeared more at peace with a world of acid-induced surrealism. Moments of buoyancy and determination define <i>Huevos</i>, from the joyous declaration of “I Love the Rain” to the self-fulfilling fantasy of “Sexy Music” (where Curt Kirkwood asks for “superhuman strength / To wipe out what is wrong”). “Fruit” contains one of the group’s most touching and vivid images of hope: “I don’t pay no attention / To the nastiness going down just above me / Within my reach there’s plenty of good things hanging ’round / Fruit on the vine, ice water fountains.” Recorded in a matter of days between tour stops, <i>Huevos</i> captures the band in a fresh, clean state of mind. There is still worry and self-loathing lurking beneath the surface (read between the lines on album closers “Dry Rain” and “I Can’t Be Counted On”), but on the whole the album feels like a respite of clarity before the personal and professional storms to come. And even though <i>Meat Puppets II</i> was Kurt Cobain’s declared favorite, you can trace Nirvana’s roots here in Curt Kirkwood’s slurred, yearning wail.

via Apple Music