|
Album Review
When Stone Temple Pilots hit it big in
1993 with their debut "Core", the band's rather obvious attempt to align its
image with the then-popular grunge scene earned them derision. However, once
you looked beyond frontman Scott Weiland's dyed hair, goatee, and somewhat
Eddie Vedder-esqe vocals (although it was more due to their mutual
appreciation of the Doors), songs like "Plush", "Sex-Type Thing", and the
almost joyous grinding pop-metal of "Wicked Garden" all indicated that the
band had a canny understanding of hard arena rock. Indeed, the slick
production values and unwillingness to indulge in aimless alt-rock/grunge
noise jams belied an ultra-professional approach that just required some
stronger material to fit between their singles (notwithstanding a couple of
quality deep cuts such as "Where the River Goes"). The question was whether
Stone Temple Pilots would, as one of the first bands to so obviously jump on
the grunge bandwagon, simply be another one hit wonder to join the scrapheap
of forgotten bands trying to cash in on a trend.
It was with their self-titled second album, also known as "Purple" to most,
that Stone Temple Pilots showed that they could transcend the cheap image
gimmick they used to get their foot in the door. While it's not that likely
that you'll find a lot of demand for grunge copycat bands such as Bush,
Silverchair, the Kennedys or others of the age to mount a comeback, the fact
that the Stone Temple Pilots 2008 reunion generated excitement is in no
small part due to this album, and the eclectic blueprint it laid out for
their subsequent releases. While both Scott Weiland and the rest of the band
attempted to find success independent of each other, it's the combination of
Weiland's unpredictable charisma (part David Bowie, part Jim Morrison, and
part chemical ingestion) and the hyper-professional musicianship of the
DeLeo brothers and Eric Kretz that brings forth their best. Even someone
like me, who's more likely to be listening to German heavy metal or Eighties
pop than grunge, can't help but salute STP for delivering the goods better
than even original grunge bands such as Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, which
both ended up exhausting their inspiration within a few years, and released
albums laden with self-indulgent yet poorly performed filler tracks that
managed to not even be experimental in a good way. Compare the plinking and
pointless droning all-too prevalent in Soundgarden's "Down on the Upside"
with the professional, multi-faceted sounds found on later STP albums such
as "Number 4" and "Shangri-La-Dee-Da".
On "Purple", STP dropped the uniform, single-minded production found in
"Core", and roughened things up a bit, while still keeping things quite
listenable and appealing to a broad audience. It was this album that pretty
much confirmed that the band actually understood what made Led Zeppelin
tick. Larger than life anthems such as "Still Remains", "Big Empty" and the
megahit "Interstate Love Song" mingled with the acoustic, exotic "Pretty
Penny" (a song that would've fit in well on Led Zeppelin III), and the
psychadelic "Lounge Fly". Faster, aggressive songs such as "Vasoline" and
"Unglued" also helped propel this album's popularity, while slower, heavy
numbers such as "Meatplow" and "Silvergun Superman" channeled a Sabbath
vibe. Throughout all these songs, a melodic, catchy sensibility is the
common element linking them together, with a subtle, contradictory love of
prog-rock lying just below the surface. The band would continue to mine
their devotion to the concept of maximizing the effectiveness of the album
medium on subsequent albums.
While Stone Temple Pilots are far from original, they never claimed to be
world-changing. Nonetheless, they're far from the mere bar-band with
freakish success that some critics think they are. In the end, it's perhaps
their devotion to being entertainers first and foremost that keeps people
like me intrigued....when they're not busy going on hiatus or breaking up
that is. Let's hope that the reunion lasts, and that the new STP album
carries on the tradition they started with "Purple".
~
J.Gordon
|
