Meat Puppets II
I am a bit of a punk fan, and I grew up with country and country rock. So it's needless to say I was actually lookinfg forward to it. Every time I think about this album, Kurt Cobain's love of the album comes to mind. I wondered if I would share the same love.
I didn't really. I liked the album enough, being a mix of country and punk. I'm always up for thwe idea of taking two genres and turning it into something else. Country andf Punk are like polar opposites. Country's more mellow and the majority of it is based on calmer and/or deeper emotion, while punk's main form is usually raw and energetic, built upon chaotic emotion. Putting a little bit of both in these creates a distinct emotion, somewhat balanced between the two, like a war between love for the nostalgia of home and anger at the rest of the world. Meat Puppets can pull it off. Yet, I have yet to find a cowpunk album I love. Meat Puppets II definitely has some of the heart of country and some of the heart of punk. However, their musical prowess cannot be compared to early Violent Femmes, who are clearly more talented in the cowpunk/folk punk realms. Meat Puppets can write good instrumentals and fun songs, but Violent Femmes just writes better songs.
Overall, I do recommend Meat Puppets II for something a little unique to the punk fans' palette or the country rock fan's palette. I think it's a good enough album to put in an essential punk albums list, and maybe an essential albums list due to its loyalty to the country and punk genres.
85/100.