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Mar 11, 2019Curt's voice sounds beautiful, crisp and clear, resigned to fate, yielding beauty in the midst of cracked flaws. And the band, fleshed out with keyboardist Ron Stabinsky and Curt's son Elmo, work the magic of making all of this sound fresh and new.
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The WireMar 7, 2019Their world is one where the scrambling of senses serves a true psychedelic purpose--to open doors, to facilitate fresh ways of perceiving and, most gloriously, to wonder. It’s great to have (all of) them back. [Mar 2019, p.49]
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Mar 6, 2019Feel free to ignore the skepticism and pessimism. Derrick Bostrom proclaimed the Meat Puppets to be a "national treasure" for a reason, and that's because quality and fun have been equally balanced ingredients in their best work. Dusty Notes bears that mark.
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Mar 11, 2019In aggregate, none of this feels like a departure--it’s somehow a step backward and forward at the same time, mining roots as a way to age gracefully.
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Apr 4, 2019Buried beneath droning, mid-tempo guitars and spare key arrangements, Dusty Notes finds Meat Puppets more grounded than ever.
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Mar 14, 2019Dusty Notes isn’t without one or two overly screwy misfires, like the Traffic-gone-prog-metal mess “Vampyr’s Winged Fantasy.” But the balance of strangeness and comfort remains the hallmark of their vision.
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Mar 8, 2019The sound isn't a throwback to their first (or second) great era so much as it reflects the best qualities of their more mature work, and if it's not quite what some folks may have hoped for, it's a pleasing and well-crafted set that reminds listeners this band is still vital and productive.
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UncutMar 6, 2019It's impressive the way the trio can seamlessly slip back into the Dead-like country-psych sound that defined the best of their '80s/'90s output. [Apr 2019, p.32]
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Mar 6, 2019Fortunately, though an old-school country aesthetic defines the album—the banjo picking on “Nine Pins,” the sweet hillbilly harmonies on “Outflow”--Curt’s irrepressible songwriting quirks make the rest of Dusty Notes anything but formulaic. The post-Bostrom Meat Puppets have often veered much closer to modern alt-country than the hardcore of their early days, and Dusty Notes is no exception; in fact, it might be the mellowest of their albums to date.