 Scott Weiland Imagine my surprise at seeing this CD one day, having heard virtually nothing about Scott Weiland in the wake of the dissolution of his former band, Stone Temple Pilots. The last I knew, his bandmates had canceled their tour in support of their third album Tiny Music, and Weiland himself had drifted in and out of rehab for his heroin addiction. But, here I was, looking at a solo CD by one of my favorite band frontmen ever. So, who was I to refuse? "Plunk!" went my $11.98, and off I went. The first track, "Desperation #5" immediately reminds me that as important as Weiland's lyrics and great voice were to my enjoyment of STP, Robert DeLeo's musical contributions were just as key. It's an awkward and nearly melody-free song, and it makes me long to hear "Interstate Love Song" again. "Barbarella" is next, and it really, really wants to be a great song, and at least part of it is. But a really clumsy and out-of-place bridge drags the song down a bit, and I've yet to figure out what the hell the song is really about. "About Nothing" is pretty good; it sounds like something that would have ended up on the next STP disc, had there been one. "Where's The Man" is a nice little mellow bit, with some cello in it – now that I think about it, put some strings in any song, and you've got me listening closer. What exactly that says, I don't know, but there it is. "Divider" might just be my favorite tune on the disc, a soft, slow jazz number. Then 12 Bar Blues takes an abrupt right turn after the two mellow songs, and you get a manic effort called "Cool Kiss" which is all full of squawking synths and fuzzy vocals, and it hits like a bucketful of ice water after the slow sultry hot bath before it. Not a totally unlikable song, really, but more a victim of poor sequencing. Then, it's on to easily the most grating and irritating song on the whole disc, "The Date." More fuzzed vocals, which in the beginning aren't bad, but by the end of the song, with Weiland screaming "I LOVE YOOOOOOOU!!!!" at the top of his lungs over and over, it gets old VERY fast. "Son" is another slow tune, an ode to Weiland's son; whether he's real or imagined I couldn't answer. Not too bad a song, though. "Jimmy Was A Stimulator" is another big loser, pillaging the melody of Local H's "High-Fivin' Mother-Fuckers" combing it with a load of nonsense lyrics and getting a big turd of a song … skip-ola. Next comes "Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down," which actually got some airplay as a single, not off this album, but off the soundtrack to Great Expectations, and it's an enjoyable song … lots of strings, there it is again. "Mockingbird Girl" is another former soundtrack song, this time the soundtrack to Tank Girl. On there, it was credited as being performed by Magnificent Bastards, and is a slightly different version, but in either incarnation, it's catchy as hell. The disc wraps up with "Opposite Octave Reaction" which is basically filler, and is most notable for having a typographical error on the back of the jewel box, being listed as "Oppopsite Octave Reaction." Gee, I better check eBay, this might be worth something! Listening to 12 Bar Blues I get a sensation that adds up to Weiland hitting me over the head with a rusty tire iron and bellowing "THIS IS NOT A STONE TEMPLE PILOTS ALBUM, YOU DIM-WITTED ASS!!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?!?!?!" It's a fact that's firmly established about three seconds in to the opening track, and continues all the way through. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. The rest of the guys in STP tried to make an STP album without Weiland, under the name Talk Show, and just didn't make it work. Weiland was smart enough to know that trying the same thing would have the same result. What he did come up with is a disc that is a pretty challenging listen, and one that surely bamboozled many of the STP fans that picked it up. The album is adventurous and experimental, and attempting classification would be an exercise in futility, as it's some straight rock, a little of the modern rock, a couple jazz-style tunes, and even a couple that waver toward "soft rock." Just file it under "drug-addled." Huh? Whaddaya mean drug humor is out?
Review by Mario Speedwagon |