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Stone Temple Pilots

by M.J. Fine

That Stone Temple Pilots would return now, nine years after their last effort, is fitting. There's something unlikely about unreliable frontman Scott Weiland getting along with his antsy bandmates long enough to write 41 minutes' worth of new music, and something equally inevitable. In the macro view, there's nothing special about the 12 songs on Stone Temple Pilots (Atlantic): "Huckleberry Crumble" is a half-baked pastiche of a handful of Aerosmith songs; "Between the Lines" pastes Kurt Cobain's vocals over showy hard-rock riffs he wouldn't be caught dead near. Other songs borrow liberally from The Beatles, Lou Reed and generic truck-stop country-rock. In the micro view, you'll be able to sing along to songs like "Bagman" after hearing it once, and if you don't hear it again for 16 years, you'll still be able to nail the chorus on command.

But STP has always been a synthesis of the unlikely and the inevitable. Chalk it up to Weiland's drug troubles and attention-sucking side projects (Talk Show, Velvet Revolver). Chalk it up to technical proficiency and an ear for what radio listeners like.

After Core, their 1992 debut, was savaged as faux-grunge opportunism by tastemakers and gobbled up by millions of MTV viewers, Weiland picked up a mild persecution complex and a nasty coke-and-heroin habit. That combination colored Purple, with its no-duh observations about watching ("Silvergun Superman") and waiting ("Lounge Fly"). The album topped the charts for three weeks in 1994 and spawned three hits — "Big Empty," "Interstate Love Song" and "Vasoline" — that have had a fairly long shelf life, considering that Weiland rarely sings a title phrase, or anything particularly tuneful.

Purple's not without its redeeming qualities. Weiland's restrained vocals bring a measure of vulnerability to "Kitchenware & Candybars," while brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo's guitar interplay gives the song an understated grandeur. And the meaty riff that anchors "Unglued" almost makes up for a line like "Moderation is masturbation/ What is what, and what makes you feel good." If the Foo Fighters had come up with it a few years later, you wouldn't be rolling your eyes right now.

(m_fine@citypaper.net)