30 years ago Meat Puppets released their iconic Too High to Die LP just months before their heralded performance with Nirvana on MTV Unplugged in New York for three of their own acoustic songs from Meat Puppets II. Brimming with 14 tracks (if you’re including the hidden bonus track “Lake of Fire”) of murky grunge with angelic vocals to juxtapose the dense arrangements, the album was released to wide acclaim and still holds up all these decades later. Calling an album “timeless” feels cliche nowadays considering a majority of these albums we label as underrated have amassed millions of streams thanks to the internet. These hyperbolized fixations we have on classic albums can tarnish albums like Too High to Die, praising every album that was released over twenty years ago diminishes special albums like this one. Meat Puppets didn’t enter the studio to create the classic LP with complex structures and nuanced musicianship as they did, they simply wanted to create.
This bare-bones approach can be felt throughout the album. Too High to Die was recorded throughout 1993 and produced by Butthole Surfers guitarist Paul Leary. The punk influence is palpable in these songs with Meat Puppets opting for more honed and detailed arrangements rather than the larger-than-life chord progressions that lined their previous releases. This approach complemented Curt Kirkwood’s songwriting perfectly. He was able to explore new melodies and different approaches to his iconic vocal inflections. The album is also home to “Backwater”, arguably Meat Puppets’ biggest hit of their career. The success of this single pushed the album to sell rather well. Too High to Die earned a gold record in only a few months after its release. The album landed at number one on the Billboard Heatseeker charts and peaked at 62 on the Billboard 200.
Enough about numbers, Too High to Die proved Meat Puppets weren’t afraid to rethink their approach. The album fearlessly intertwines different eras of different genres into one neatly woven basket overflowing with poetic lyrics and stunning harmonies. The fact a twangy ballad like “Shine” can sound so comfortable next to the distorted onslaught and blistering tempos of “Flaming Heart” speaks volumes to the headspace the band was in. The way the album is inconsistently entertaining and can bounce around moods and emotions with ease is enough for us to be talking about the release three decades later.
It doesn’t stop there though, Too High to Die features some stellar vocal performances. The harmonies that push a track like “Severed Goddess Hand” sound like their being passed down by a Goddess themselves. The raw vocals and lo-fi tones on “Why?” emphasize the nuances that make these performances so memorable. It’s not that the singing is particularly impressive but no long falsettos being held over two minutes can compare to what Meat Puppets accomplished here.
If you haven’t listened to Too High to Die in a while, this is your sign to dive back into its magic. Don’t approach it with the idea of “timeless” in your brain, approach the album the same way the band did; with an open mind. Everything from the juxtaposing tones to the pure playing allows Meat Puppets’ eighth studio effort to sound current and present despite the many changes the genre has gone through since 1994. Although, one could argue all those changes might not have happened if it wasn’t for the fearless creativity displayed on Too High to Die.
