I'm not trying to say it's better than II (commonly considered their best along with UOTS). Personal preferences sometimes have to do with, say, the great summer you had listening to a cool record, or maybe when one saved your sanity at a boring job. But I really do think TOO HIGH TO DIE is truly one of their best, and I even know a few Meat-heads who insist it is, in fact, their greatest.
This kind of praise unfortunately gets thrown around a lot, but I must (type) that I think Curt Kirkwood is a highly underrated guitar genius. His playing is pretty unique, super-melodic and he's technically gifted. The Kirkwood brothers' voices ("Cris" on bass) are less so. They tend to sing in the same basic range here, but they actually SING (no screaming, posturing, etc.) and do it well - I dig their voices!
This album rocks, but there's also a lot of variety. There's quite a bit of country influence and it's ironic that I love it so much cuz I'm no country fan. I didn't go for a lot of this album at first, but now some of those songs I didn't go for initially get stuck in my head - and I like that! The following notes are my personal impressions of TOO HIGH TO DIE:
"Violet Eyes" - kicks it off with a killer, the hardest rocker on the record. Awesome feedback-laden soloing from Curt - trippy!
"Never To Be Found" - catchy and tuneful, this groover is addictive. The bass is simple and perfect. It starts off lighter than "Violet Eyes" with some crisp strumming, but takes off to great heights. "We got road, we got time, so we're out of here . . ." Love the epic guitar coda at the end before the band kicks in again with a faster tempo.
"We Don't Exist" - cool rocker. I'm not sure why the singer wants and needs "Cayenne" so bad or what it will do for him, but his longing for it is powerful. Or maybe Cayenne's just a girl.
"Severed Goddess Head" - Sweet and easy-going rocker with cool vocal harmonies.
"Flaming Heart" - drummer Derrick Bostrom gradually and skillfully increases the tempo over the course of this song with the effect of intensifying it (contrary to some opinions, that's a compliment). This is one of the songs that sometimes just pops in my head and starts playing - the part towards the end where the lead guitar kicks in.
"Shine" - unlike the other songs here, this one is really mellow and beautiful.
"Station" - This track sounds like a demented country circus. I couldn't deal with it when I first heard this album. Now I'm addicted to it.
"Roof With a Hole" - a loooow down, powerful, blues-y #. "There may be diamonds in that dream on the hill/ But the people who live there still complain/ Cause the roof's got a hole in it/ And everything's been ruined by the rain." (Listening to this song today struck me as poignant in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devestation.)
"Backwater" - a great song and pretty much their lone hit on alt-rock radio. I don't think it's necessarily the best on the album, but it's certainly a strong contender and it did sound great on the radio. Killer rhythm!
"Things" - another great one (I'd rate every song on TOO HIGH TO DIE a 5) with some truly wild and strange guitar moves from Curt.
"Why?" - a gorgeous, folky little tune.
"Evil Love" - Another excellent rock groove.
"Comin Down" - great, bouncy tune and (more or less) a straight-up country track.
bonus hidden track - a deadpan, super-cool re-recording of their classic "Lake of Fire." Doesn't surplant the original, but it's way cool and Curt solos his ass off.
Aside from a few songs that seem to be there as filler... this is the best of the later Mup's period. And, contrary to popular belief, there is more to this record than just "Backwater". Nothing wrong with that song, either... but one listen to "Things" or "Severed Goddess Hand", and the true charcter of this desperate longing album will come out and smack ya in the nose. Presuming that you want to be smacked in the nose, that is. And why wouldn't you? Because it hurts... that's why. But, the nice country groove of "Comin Down" will cradle you in it's arms and make it all better, I promise. Oh... and let's not forget the extra track... the kickin' reworking of "Lake Of Fire"... with listenable vocals!!!
This was the first Puppets album I ever heard, and really is one of their best. I've spun a lot of their records, and I like some of the stuff that most Meat Puppet fans dig on. The first album is all kinds of weird, and the second album is great, and raw and punky. But for me, I like the style of this album the best. On par with the always wonderful UP On The Sun album, but this is the one that was there for me in my younger days, where I didn't discover Sun until many years later. Sometimes the songs on this one just catch you in a place where you can take the biggest heap of sh** you are dealing with, and just float away on it, as if it were a flying carpet. The songs here work like this on me even more now than they did back then...(I deal with a lot more sh** piles, I guess).
They really make you stop for a minute and just breathe everything in, and sometimes that makes the back of my head go buzz a little, and is a truly welcome sensation.
This album never really acheived much success, even though their names became pretty well known during 1994, the year this was released, ala, the tour with Nirvana. Maybe a certain tragedy took some of the light off of them, but at the time it seemed like they were ready to rebirth a new career. Lots of great harmonizing and some rockin guitars and/or nice mellow grooves.
I def say check it out!
I'd give five-star-ratings for "meat puppets II", "live in montana" (best live-recordings ever!!) and for "too high..." the ultimate meat pups-cd!!
Listening to this album, you'll understand why the Meat Puppets have outlasted all of their puny "grunge" imitators. Curt Kirkwood is one of the only guitar heroes to come out of the nineties. Go out and buy it now! You won't regret it!
