Stone Temple Pilots Albums

Stone Temple Pilots were the first band I ever remember loving whole-heartedly. I didn't know much about their influences in my middle school days or about why they were popular and the trends of the time. I learned how to evaluate albums listening to their records, to differentiate between what was good and what was bad and to be somewhat objective. I recall seeing them live in 2001 or so in Birmingham, and it was crazy because I remember the audience getting as excited about the album tracks they would play as much as the singles I heard on the radio. The brothers Robert and Dean Deleo can really write a good melody, and with age and experience now I know the music is a blend of influences from REM, David Bowie, and Jane's Addiction, not to mention plenty of 1980’s excess arena rock bands. There are plenty that dig at the bands lack of authenticity, but in all honestly their music holds up much better then most of their time and they did dare to experiment quite often for a band given mainstream appeal. Besides that, I don't care what people say: STP were an odd conglomeration between 80s metal and Grunge and you can really hear it on each subsequent album.

Band Members:

Dean DeLeo (guitar), Robert DeLeo (bass, vibraphone), Eric Kretz (drums,

keyboards), Scott Weiland (vocals)

Best Album:

Purple

Biggest influences:

Jane’s Addiction, REM, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie

Albums Chronologically:

1992 – 79% - Core

1994 – 89% - Purple

1996 – 81% - Tiny Music Gifts from the VG

1999 – 67% - No. 4

2001 – 74% - Shangra La De Da

1992

Core  -   79%

It makes sense listening to their debut, Core, that opener "Dead and Bloated" is as popular to fans as killer singles like the airtight rocker that follows "Sex Type Thing" with that killer chorus (think X’s “Johnny Hit and Run Pauline” but heavier and weightier) , a great one-two grunge defining punch. "Plush" is a song that is mid-tempo but feels like the weight of the world is on our backs, pushing down, the chords are a heavy as the guitars. "Creep is the slowest ballad about growing old and being tired, but still very memorable. "Naked Sunday" is a good song as well, punk energy sounding like some L.A. band contemporaries, and "Crackerman" is in the vein but even better and more powerful. There are two minor tracks at about one minute thirty seconds or less, which I came to define as “good filler”, my own term for shorter songs that don’t really count as much – rock n rolls version of Hip Hop ‘skits’. “No Memory” is not very memorable but “Wet my Bed” makes up for it, a hazy ramble by singer Scott Weiland echoing Sonic Youth’s “Providence”.

Lyrics about 'dogs and sadness' dominate every song, a very much a take on the Seattle sound of the 90s with bands and contemporaries Soundgarden and Mother Love Bone abound. I've always thought STP took more form MLB than Pearl Jam, probably because they are a little older. “Wicked Garden” is my favorite song on the record (over “Plush” just by a tad) and it bears this Seattle influence in everyway, while sort of being it’s own melodic hard rock thing. Even though there is a lot that stands out, at 54 minutes the album is a bit over wrought - as so many 90s albums were - with several songs that could have either been excluded or shorter like the laborious "Sin", eight minute closer "Where the River Goes", and the kind of generic but still intriguing bridge of "Piece of Pie". But it’s mostly either good or great on Core, and when its great its an amazing debut album! It's dark and murky, but it's also fun and catchy.   

Best Songs: Wicked Garden, Plush, Crackerman, Sex Type Thing

1994

Purple  -  89%

The formal perfection on the sophomore album Purple was pretty astonishing to behold, as the band managed to keep their knack for killer singles and punchy songs as well keeping the album diverse stylistically. It is deceiving to open with a meaty rocker like “Meatplow” with nonsense lyrics and uncompromising attitude, then follow it up with groovy alternative rock showcase “Vaseline” which manages to be a great catchy single but also one of the best guitar tones on the radio, and then with the bizarre “Lounge Fly” which borders the line in being a mix of about 5 genres all at once- folk chorus, DJ-opening, Rapping verses, killer guitar solo, country tinged chorus. The broad range continues on meg-hit and classic rock staple “Interstate Love Song”, one of the best songs of all time and their crown jewel. Not enough could be said of this song the way the southern rock draw collides with the storytelling of a singer songwriter, and that killer guitar riff. Weiland’s maturity as a vocalist of many inflections is awe inspiring and really unmatched among his more famous peers.

An obvious homage to John Bonham is found in just about every song the way drummer Eric Kretz plays (the most technical expertise), especially on “Still Remains” which retains Led Zeppelin’s passion and gets miles away from grunge at all. Ditto for “Pretty Penny”, the folk-rock side and betraying a Beatles influence. Black Sabbath heaviness returns for “Silvergun Superman” and punk rock attack on the silly “Unglued” and “Army Ants”, the latter is one of their more underrated album tracks with its complicated structure, and a blistering way to end the album. The guitars on this song, what exactly are they inspired by- as it almost sounds like New Age music at spots?!? That mix of metallic and punk rock guitars dominates the attitude of the record, but the softer moments like the chasms in the chorus of “Big Empty”, make this album a classic. “Kitchenware and Candybars” seems a bit out of place, but the closing Johnny Mathis parody “secret track” is icing on the cake of diversity.

As maligned by critics at the time as it was (STP was always more popular with fans than critics), the record has aged incredibly well and was probably the best thing they ever did.

Best Songs: Interstate Love Song, Vaseline, Army Ants, Big Empty

1996

Tiny Music -   81%

Riding the vibe from the more diverse songs from their last album, Tiny Music…Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop is one of the more abrupt genre shifts in rock music history. Time to be objective: I kind of love every song on here, because I grew up with this constantly in my cd player. The wackiness of “Art School Girlfriend” was one of my first experiences with loving a song that had completely silly and nonsensical lyrics throughout and a soft/loud dynamic that shouldn’t really work but totally does for me (because my brain is now weird to it).I know “Press Play” and “Daisy” are little bits of light filler, but they are charming and I love them. On the flip side, the actual filler songs on here- “And So I Know” the overlong ballad, and “Adhesive” the only STP song I actively HATE- also take place between the more glorified singles.

Capturing a more retro David Bowie-ish vibe, “Lady Picture Show” is an amazing, cinematic single from 1996 that fits into nothing else; “Trippin on a Hole” is like their version of a rock-rap song was a chorus that could only be great coming from STP, very unique; the groovy “Big Bang Baby” is only cool because they embrace the uncool. As the randomness of this band continues, moving more and more away from grunge and predictability we also get the fun and upbeat “Tumble in the Rough” sounding like a song about the spiral out of drunk control, and the underrated guitar solo glory of “Ride the Cliché” which shows how adept they are and craft uplifting pop rock songs. Some of the other tunes are still good though a tad more on the generic side I admit, the dramatic opener “Pop’s Love Suicide” (accidently prophetic for Weiland) and the charming but sort of melodramatic closer “Seven Caged Tigers.” In all, the definition of a ‘mixed bag’ but easily their most eclectic and endearing record.

Best Songs: Trippin On a Whole in Paper Heart, Lady Picture Show, Ride the Cliché, Big Bang Baby

1999

No. 4  -  67%

No. 4 is showing the band trying to retain some of their former hard rock glory, opener “Down” is like a grungier version of R.E.M’s “Drive” trying to set the tone for the record by shadowing it in gloom, in this case hard rock arena gloom, but it works as an announcement that this is a band ready to rock again. The blistering “Heaven and Hots Rods” and the psychedelic, dreamy “Glide” succeed in being examples of this newfound grunge return, while “MC5” and the repetitive “Pruno” might be a little too on the nose to be fully successful. Still, the band cannot resist showing their softer side and honestly its where they shine the most, mainly on the mega-hit “Sour Girl” which has an eerie charm and is perhaps the best sweet ballad they ever wrote; something about Weilands war-torn voice singing these simple melodies remains very endearing. However, its their most inconsistent record so far as well, with songs like the overwrought “No Way Out”, the dumb rock of “Sex and Violence”, and silly “I Got You” not adding much at all to their cannon. Still, mostly listenable and fairly pleasant.

Best Songs: Sour Girl, Heaven and Hot Rods, Glide, Down

2001

Shangri la de da - 74%

Well yes, unexpectedly more of the same from the last album but the band seems more at ease and honestly it rides the confidence of Purple more than you think it would. There are some obvious “I am approaching fatherhood” sort of songs made for children towards the end- “A Song for Sleeping” and “Bi-Polar Bear” jump out, beautifully produced just uncharacteristic for a them (or maybe….that’s the point?).Still, the hard pounding “Coma” is one of my favorite STP songs and remains criminally underrated – that chorus is so simple but effective, the guitar screeching the chorus stays in your head for days, and it should have been a huge hit on its own. “Regeneration” is the other large success, playing on the psychedelic qualities the band has perfected, it’s a damn near perfect song combining some punk rock attitude with some Hawkwind style guitar heroics. Still pretty great “Transmissions from a Lonely Room” feels like a crowning cap on their entire career, doing everything they do very well in a sleezy sort chorus. These three songs alone make the album worth a listen.

If the rest of the album from the corny “Days of the Week” to the “Sour Girl” trying to live again ballads “Wonderful” and “Black Again”, to the somehow this still works sleaze “Hollywood Bitch” and decent opener “Dumb Love”, might all seem slight- really it’s still an improvement from the last record to me. Stone Temple Pilots its often forgotten, has lasted as a group longer than it had any right to at this point and this was their last full album with the original line up. For their first five records, they never made one that was outright “bad” and always managed to be consistent as far as song quality goes while tackling every genre in the book. Go in with no expectations and Shangra La De Da might still surprise you.

Best Songs: Regeneration, Coma, Transmission from a Lonely Room, Hollywood Bitch

*Side note: the band splintered somewhat with Scott Weiland joining Velvet Revolver until his death in 2016, and the rest of the band trying to go on without him by hiring a new singer. They never quite regained the glory or magic that made them work, but later attempts are pretty decent especially the self-titled 2012 album.