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

Curt Kirkwood, the band's singer/guitarist and primary songwriter, described the album as "real blown-out folk music". He elaborated: "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, 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."

Track listing

Reception

As of June 2013, based on 17 reviews, Rat Farm has a score of 74 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". This is the highest score of their albums released since 2000.

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." 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." 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 "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."

Personnel

• Curt Kirkwood - vocals, guitars
• Cris Kirkwood - vocals, bass guitar
• Shandon Sahm - drums

Name

The name "Rat Farm" is not unique to the album and has been used by a small 10 acre homestead outside of Duluth, Minnesota, since it was purchased May 26th, 2009. The Rat Farm Homestead <ref>[http://ratfarm.tumblr.com/ has has a serious of blogs over the years primarilly utilizing phototgraphy to document it's progression and share how-to information. The rat Farm Homestead also enjoyed top Google sesults up until the release of the album, aiding in controversy as to the "borrowing" of the name.

References

1. ^ Kyle McGovern, Feb. 8, 2013, Spin. Meat Puppets 'Play it Straight' on 14th Studio Album 'Rat Farm'. retrieved Feb. 19, 2013
2. 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.
3. "Rat Farm Reviews". Metacritic. 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
4. "Meat Puppets Profile". Metacritic. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
5. Andy Gill (2013-04-12). "Album review: Meat Puppets, Rat Farm (Megaforce) - Reviews - Music". The Independent. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
6. Lymangrover, Jason (2013-04-16). "Rat Farm - Meat Puppets : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
7. "Review: Meat Puppets - Music". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2013-06-10.

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