Quick Review (LP): Lollipop by Meat Puppets

Meat Puppets
Lollipop
Megaforce; 2011

My Rating: B (72/100)

Best Tracks: "Incomplete", "Orange", "Shave It", "Damn Thing", "The Spider and the Spaceship", "Amazing"

A sunny little pop record that should have been a little more gloriously cross-eyed.

NOTES

• Meat Puppets are, in my mind at least, of a kin with Dinosaur Jr. in that they are enjoying a comeback that is arguably as prolific as their initial run. That being said, I doubt they’ll ever top Meat Puppets II.
• Thanks brothers Meat for singing. I so love the harmonies.
• "Shave It" sounds like they are positioning themselves to market Hawaiian Shave Ice. Catchy tune.
• It’s funny – a lot of these tunes sound like I would have had a good chance of hearing them on the radio in the early 90’s. Too bad it’s not the early 90’s.
• Though I do like the songs here, I will say that it can feel a little too modern rock-ish at times. The MP sense of identity is still intact, but at times it seems a little too "business as usual”, like they’re going to grab a beer after they finish up in the studio.
• Is it just me, or are the Meat Puppets sort of an indie, non-jam version of the Grateful Dead? Come to think of it, I’d love to hear these guys cover "Touch of Gray."
• "Amazing" is a cool tune.  I dig the lyrics.
• "I’d like to slap the face of alien…"
• I prefer it when these guys make things very cross-eyed. It makes them standout from the pack. For that reason, I really like "The Spider and the Spaceship" because the lyrics are silly, it sounds like a drinking song, and it features a tuba.
• I like this record. I just wish I was blown away by it. Pitchfork and I are apparently on the same wavelength: “Where their records once strained and burst from too much wildness, now they threaten to get so competent they’ll go flat. There are plenty of great tunes here, just not much character.Lollipop’s as catchy as your average power-pop record, but still hardly as essential as the band’s peaks.”

ATTRIBUTES
Cohesion (4/5)
Concept (4/5)
Consistency (5/5)
Consequence (3/5)
Songs (4.5/5)