What is it about reunions that causes sensible adults to bestow superhuman abilities onto the participants? Why do we assume that, say, simply because brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood sat side-by-side in a recording studio for the first time in 12 years, their new Meat Puppets album will, without a doubt, be the best Meat Puppets album since the prime of the band’s youth?
That despite one obvious, rather discouraging fact: Curt—who kept the band afloat for part of the interim without his drug-devastated (and, later, incarcerated) sibling—is, and has always been, the band’s sole songwriter, singer and guitarist. So, lifting aside the veil of sentimentality from the “comeback” project for a moment, Cris’ return essentially amounts to the reintroduction of the trio’s original bassist. Hooray?
In reality then, it should come as no great shock that Rise to Your Knees comes off like most of the once-hardcore, then-cowpunky trio’s late-era fare (with and without Cris): glaringly underwhelming. A few moments—fuzzed-out opening snarl “Fly Like the Wind,” the straightforward country-pop of “Island” and Dino Jr.-esque rocker “New Leaf” (slyly resurrected from 2004’s Classic Puppets compilation)—are worth a few spins, but mostly the 67-minute affair feels too long, too mellow and too meandering for a group that once inspired a young Kurt Cobain and had its songs covered by the Minutemen.
Then again, founding Puppets drummer Derrick Bostrom did opt out, so maybe if he comes back next time it’ll make all the difference!
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Meat Puppets
Rise to Your Knees
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