Music Reviews

Early in their career, Stone Temple Pilots were often compared to Pearl Jam, mostly because of the occasional guttural tone deployed by vocalist Scott Weiland that reminded people of Eddie Vedder. That said, STP and PJ were clearly different animals born and bred during the early ’90s alternative-cum-grunge movement, with PJ hewing to their Hendrixian-activist vibes and STP doubling down on unfurling surrealist lyricism atop a crunchy nest of Aerosmith-heavy guitars.

Core, STP’s September 1992 debut, laid the foundation for a hard-rocking rollercoaster ride steeped in the three G’s—garage, glam, and groove. “Creating our own sound with a sense of space—that’s always the mission when you’re making an album,” Weiland told me in February 2015, less than a year before he sadly passed away that December. “The intent is to have a collection of songs that have their own identity, but still are one cohesive group of music.” As bassist Robert DeLeo admitted to me in 2016, “I’m talking to you partly because of Scott. There was a time he was really exuberant about our art, and how we expressed it. We didn’t even have to think about what we were doing—we just did it. I feel very fortunate to have shared my music with him. Scott reciprocated with some beautiful poetry, melodies, and vocals.”

Core dropped at the height of the CD era, produced by Brendan O’Brien for maximum impact and airplay. My Redbook 1992 Atlantic CD garnered many a spin in that decade’s heady, headbanging first quarter—even though it was on the cusp of my attention-span-o-meter at 54 unrelenting minutes. The sound palate of Core opened up further with the 2000 Atlantic DVD-Audio release that contained a 5.1 remix by the original album’s engineer Nick DiDia, which was in turn mastered by Keith Blake on the then-new Euphonix S-5 digital mixing console.

DiDia wisely let the music breathe and flow all around you quite naturally by anchoring the interlocked rhythm section of bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz at the mix’s core (pun intended) while spreading guitarist Dean DeLeo’s forceful yet supportive slabs of layered riffage wide across the soundstage, all of it leaving an unintruded-upon alleyway for Weiland’s varying vocal inflections. His throaty snarls on the self-aware wink/nudge of “Sex Type Thing” gave way to a breathier emotive style on “Creep,” and, ultimately, the twisted underlying confessional of the deliberately stuck in second gear churn of “Plush.” Until an Atmos mix comes along to take Weiland’s voicings into the literal ether, DiDia’s 5.1 DVD-A mix more than suffices for my STP surround fix.

For the album’s 25th anniversary in 2017, a 3CD/1DVD/1LP box set on Atlantic/Rhino added eight quite telling demos, six rarities, and 14 explosive and/or unplugged cuts of live material from 1993 to the proceedings—as did the balance of a limited-edition deluxe 4LP box set in 2022 from Atlantic/Run Out Groove. Listening to the Core Demos LP—which I’m officially subtitling Root—I got a finer appreciation for how producer O’Brien was able to bring forth better instrumental clarity and tighter vocal precision in his final mix. I loved hearing how Weiland hadn’t yet figured out the full narrative thrust or even any of the choruses on “Plush” (LP3, Side 6, Track 4), and I actually prefer Dean DeLeo’s guitar solo on the shorter “Where the River Goes” demo (LP3, Side 5, Track 4) than the main one on the 8-minute version on the finished album.

That all said, the truly definitive STP Core vinyl experience emerged in March 2024 as a 2LP 45rpm set by Analogue Productions in conjunction with their Atlantic 75 Audiophile Series. O’Brien’s Core stereo mix manifests much better breadth and depth on four sides at 45 than on any prior LP edition at 33⅓. The once-buried acoustic guitar chucka-chuckas on the choruses of “Plush” (LP2, Side 3, Track 2) are more prominent, pristine, and complementary here, as is the ping-ponging percussive bed underneath much of “Naked Sunday” (LP1, Side 2, Track 3).

In a follow-up 2023 interview, Robert DeLeo told me how much he’s enjoyed getting the balance of the STP catalog released in its proper LP form. “I think vinyl has a certain integrity and a certain charm that never went away for guys like us who grew up with it,” he observed. “It’s really a feel as much as it is a sonic thing—and it’s such a huge part of the fabric of my being now. Sometimes, it’s not until you put things in perspective that you really feel that way, and I guess that’s part of looking at your past. And, God rest Scott, but we really created something together.”

So, where ya going for tomorrow? STP’s Core will take you there, back to a time when burning your wicked garden down could also bring you back to life—but this time, you’re really gonna feeeel it.