Having released Live In Montana, a live recording from 1988, and re-issuing their entire SST collection last year, the Meat Puppets have returned with Golden Lies, their first studio album since 1995. Some major changes have occurred. Curt Kirkwood is the sole original member left, as his brother Cris Kirkwood is still picking up the pieces from his drug-influenced near-self-destruction and the overdose of his wife, and original drummer Derrick Bostrom has moved to California for a job in electronics, though he still runs the Meat Puppets website. Curt Kirkwood relocated from Phoenix to Austin, TX, and formed the Royal Neanderthal Orchestra in 1997, which would then take over the Meat Puppets name-though Chris Kirkwood and Bostrom were never officially kicked out of the band and happily sit on the sidelines.

Golden Lies flows in the vein of the last two Meat Puppet albums, Too High To Die and No Joke. The sound is polished and fresh, with the Southwestern country element that the Meat Puppets are known for getting lost or at least diminished along the way and being replaced by more straightforward, hard rock. This album is not mediocre, but it does not match its two predecessors, both of which themselves did not get much critical or commercial praise, besides the radio hit "Backwater" on 1994's Too High To Die. Some songs stand out though on Golden Lies. Let J Mascis sing "Endless Wave" and it could easily pass as a Dinosaur Jr. song. The jovial Caribbean guitar riff used on "Push the Button" makes that song uniquely stick out before it shifts into more familiar Meat Puppet territory. On "Hercules" and "Wipeout" though, Kirkwood attempts a spoken-rap vocal attack that doesn't necessarily fail, but is quite annoying and hard to overlook. The album overall does not really pick up until the middle when the better songs begin to appear, making it quite lop-sided at least in what I found exciting. Golden Lies can be appreciated for what it is and whom it is coming from. It is not necessarily a disappointment or a musical revelation, but if you are familiar with the Meat Puppet's past, it may be right down your alley.

- Mark Shelley