No Drama

I had a chance to listen to Stone Temple Pilots’ new self-titled album today. Let me say that I have been left disappointed. Maybe I’m jaded now that I have been going through a list of 200 critically-acclaimed records from Metacritic’s website () and have acquired a little bit better taste in music. But I am listening to the record now, and while there are some interesting tracks, overall I’m not that impressed with it. Let me explain.

Back in the ‘90’s STP was a pretty big band in the alternative rock (whatever that ultimately has meant) world, having released several well-received records in Core and Purple. Tiny Music wasn’t bad but was a departure from the previous two. That’s probably when I noticed they were changing for the worse. My brother and I saw them in concert with Local H, and I’ll be honest, I thought Local H was better. They were louder, there were only two of them (what is my affinity with two-member bands?!), and their songs were catchy. STP was too quiet for me. This is the band that sounded loud on Core with songs like “Crackerman”, “Sex Type Thing”, and “Dead and Bloated”. Why did they sound like they were in a vacuum? I can’t figure that one out.

Tiny Music came out after Weiland had had legal problems and the band had briefly split. Their sound changed when the album came out. It sounded as if they were transitioning from a harder, grungier sound to a softer, “pop”-ier sound but threw on the album a couple of “loud” tracks to keep their audience. Needless to say, that record (and subsequent records) was not as well received, and the band sort of sunk into oblivion. They broke up again for a longer time; Weiland formed Velvet Revolver with former members of G N’ R (a cool band, at least for the first record); the De Leo brothers did some other stuff. They recently reunited to do a couple of one-off concerts, and from there they did this album.

I was initially attracted to this record by the song “Between the Lines”, which is probably the closest song that resembles their stuff from Core and Purple. After that, it really felt pressed, as if the band was trying to fit in with other modern rock bands, but the tracks were really underwhelming. I really don’t feel they addressed their strengths from the past: loud/soft sections; heavy, distorted guitars; great interaction between the bassist and drummer; Weiland’s sly vocal stylings. That stuff was missing. There were some hints in a few of the songs, but those moments were fleeting. I don’t believe that their sound from the ‘90’s has died away, so I don’t see why they would ignore it.

Am I wrong in my assessment? If someone can tell me what I am missing, please enlighten me.