Wednesday 21 March 2018

Album Review: STONE TEMPLE PILOTS - Stone Temple Pilots (2018)

Stone Temple Pilots (2018)

01. Middle of Nowhere
02. Guilty
03. Meadow
04. Just a Little Lie
05. Six Eight
06. Thought She'd Be Mine
07. Roll Me Under
08. Never Enough
09. The Art of Letting Go
10. Finest Hour
11. Good Shoes
12. Reds & Blues 

If there's one thing I hate, it's when bands have more than one self-titled album. Not only does it screw up people's digital media folders, but it screams "we're too fucking lazy and uncreative to come up with anything and just don't care". This kind of shit gets right on my tits! Anyway, now I've got that off my chest...

This is the first Stone Temple Pilots album since the passing of both former lead singers, Scott Weiland and, albeit briefly, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington. Due to the monumental success the band had with their first two records, and the relative lack of mainstream success since, not to mention the decades in-between, a huge part of their fanbase will never accept any version of Stone Temple Pilots without Scott Weiland. I get it. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and the brand was so deeply associated with the iconic front-man, that without him, it just doesn't feel like Stone Temple Pilots anymore. I saw them on the Purple tour back in the 90's, and I've been struggling to get past this too.

On the other side of the coin, it must have been a nightmare working with a man whose addictions and lifestyle brought such chaos. I remember when they had to pull out of the support slot with Kiss on their hugely successful reunion tour in the mid 90's, because Scott had to go back to rehab. Their third album suffered because they couldn't tour and promote it properly. I'm sure there have been countless other amazing opportunities that the band missed out on that the public aren't aware of.

Now, with new singer Jeff Gutt, they're able to function at the rate that they want and regain a little more control over their destiny. That is providing that there's enough people out there who are interested in new material. I'm pleased to say it's actually pretty good! More importantly, they still sound like Stone Temple Pilots. Jeff sounds similar to Scott Weiland, and even a little like Chester Bennington on occasions, but has enough character in his voice to make him easily identifiable and certainly not a clone of anyone else. For this reason, he's the ideal singer for Stone Temple Pilots at this time.

The album opens with Middle of Nowhere, which is upbeat and alright, but it's not until the second track Guilty where I started to be really impressed. Meadow is the first single and sounds like classic Stone Temple Pilots. If it had been released in the 90's, it would have been a massive hit.

Other stand-out tracks include the heavy-yet-trippy Roll Me Under and the beautifully written power ballad Finest Hour.

Overall, this new record is pretty good and has a handful of killer tracks that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the classic hits from the 90's. Whether the nostalgia hungry public will care about this record is another question altogether though. I still think that Stone Temple Pilots have a lot to offer. Songs like Meadow are evidence of that, and I really hope that this new line-up gets the recognition that it deserves.

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