It’s almost cliche to talk about STP’s reputation at this point, the fact that they were derided as carpetbaggers upon the release of their debut Core, an older breed of careerist arena rockers dressed up in grunge to ride the wave of the zeitgeist. 4 should sound like a disaster two decades later. 4 came out, the Strokes released their Modern Age EP. When we look back at that time now, we think of rising American indie and ambitious genre-shifting works, not the alt-rock hangers-on during their theoretical downturns. 4 was almost a dinosaur upon arrival, a swaggering and snarling rock album at the postscript of grunge’s cultural cachet. And while emo, nu-metal, and the likes of Foo Fighters and Nickelback ensured rock was a completely fine commercial prospect for years to come, No. Heavy and bombastic but also slick and professional, it was a big-budget alt-rock album in the waning days of such things. 4 was positioned as a “back to basics” album after the psych-pop of Tiny Music and the band’s ensuing troubles. STP were not one of the bands who went in this direction.
The same was happening across the pond, whether in U2’s Pop or Radiohead’s OK Computer and the impending Kid A. Many of STP’s peers or immediate forebears in American alternative were beginning to experiment with synthesizers and the electronica sounds of the day, resulting in albums like R.E.M.’s Up and Smashing Pumpkins’ Adore. The late ’90s, in hindsight, marked a cusp - one of those times you can look back on and recognize a transitional era for rock music, one of many instances where people might proclaim its death only for a new rebirth to come around and continue the cycle. Arriving 20 years ago this Saturday, it was called, simply enough, No. But before the decade was out, they got together one more time for a fourth album, one that’d reclaim some - ahem - core essence of STP.
#STONE TEMPLE PILOTS DOWN MP3 PLUS#
Following their third album, 1996’s Tiny Music… Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop, Weiland would release an underrated solo album called 12 Bar Blues the rest of the STP, brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo plus drummer Eric Kretz, formed another band called Talk Show. After a fairly prolific stretch - three albums in the three and a half years from late ’92 to early ’96 - the band began to fracture, primarily due to Scott Weiland’s addiction issues and subsequent legal problems. It had been a tumultuous and fragmented couple of years for Stone Temple Pilots.
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