Stone Temple Pilots
Purple

THE REVIEW

“Purple” was the album of consecration for Scott Weiland and the De Leo brothers' band, the one that allowed its creators to silence those who had painted them, at the time of their highly successful debut “Core,” as unnecessary clones of the divine Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden.

To be honest, it must be said that there were more than a few elements in that album that could be traced back to the sound of the Seattle groups. But with “Purple,” the San Diego group first and foremost showed that they were not a “one-hit wonder,” and that the songwriting did not flatten out on grunge stereotypes while still providing a handful of excellent tracks. Even the singer Scott Weiland took center stage, shaking off the shadow of Layne Staley and Eddie Vedder, which had perhaps affected episodes from the previous album, such as “Dead and bloated” and “Plush”.

Stylistically, the tracks on Purple can be divided into two parts: the first retraces the paths of chart-grunge from “Core,” and the second offers variations on the theme. Among the tracks of the first group stand out the solemn midtempo of “Still remains” and “Meat plow,” the imposing ballad “Interstate love song” and an inspired “Lounge fly,” which seems to come from the third LP of the Zeppelin. However, the main attractions of “Purple” are those episodes that elude the clichés of “Core”: in particular the first single “Vaseline,” a phenomenal example of minimalism applied to rock, a dry and intense two minutes for one of the most famous tracks of the alternative-MTV era. Also beautiful is “Big empty,” in which jazz parts overlap a memorable refrain, the languid folk of “Pretty Penny” – featuring a Weiland in an extraordinary form – and “Army ants,” where funk-psychedelic suggestions in the style of Jane's Addiction enliven the usual De Leo score. In short, "Purple" is an album that remains very enjoyable even more than 10 years after its release.

The Stone Temple Pilots certainly rank a notch below the monster-groups of the grunge era, but they have delivered excellent pages and songs that symbolize an era.