No. 4

bought as a present & not for me

Totally recommend

Superb album. It's a collection of great songs

The first 5 songs on this album are fantastic. "Down", "Heaven & Hot Rods" & "Pruno" are edgy and darker than the previous STP offerings, the riffs are underpinned by Robert Deleo's trademark bass hooks and are solid. Church on Tuesday and the single Sour Girl bring it down a notch, but the song writing detailed in Sour Girl is STP at their best. To echo a few other reviews, there are elements of filler on this album (No Way Out, Sex & Violence) which are mediocre at best. But, "Glide" - oh boy, what a song. Big glorious chords, Scott's vocals are magnificent and the chorus is so memorable. "I Got You" offers a bit of down-tempo diversity, "MC5" gives the album one final kick, but there's something unfinished about that track. "Altanta" closes the record in a grandiose Doors-esque way, I can take or leave the track - some people I know love it and other's don't like it at all. The white vinyl was a nice surprise, I was expecting black :o) The outer sleeve is sturdy enough with the star cut out in the middle, the disc is housed in a white gloss sleeve and the lyrics are on a separate sheet. No photos as per the CD release, but overall satisfied that I have finally got this album on vinyl!

Dark and powerful

I've followed STP from the raw, untamed "Core" through to the sublime "Tiny Music..." and eagerly awaited Weiland's release from the Big House to see what they produced for their fourth album. Far from the expected angst songs about fear of showers, or anticipating visiting time that you might expect from a recently released product of the american judicial system, "No 4" is infact a tremendous achievment and the perfect step as their style matures. Forget the first two tracks... while perfectly in keeping with early STP stuff, they don't really capture the imagination, but lull you into believing that a return to the Core sound has been taken. Then you happen across mellow, almost bluesy classics like "I Got You", "Glide", "Sour Girl" and the Doors-esque "Atlanta". Combined with heavier, hook-laden rockers such as "MC5" and "Pruno", this album achieves the perfect mix of diverse styles that is rapidly becoming the hallmark of good STP music. One complaint, it's too short. At 42 minutes, you barely get a chance to appreciate it, then it ends. Oh well, can't have everything.

'Purple' was a long standing favourite CD of mine. On that set of material, STP beat Pearl Jam hands down and silenced their critics. Now after the clever but 'difficult' Tiny Music, welcome back to that sound that typifies this fine fine rock bank. From the brooding grunge of the opening track 'Down' to the magnificent closing track 'Atlanta' they have rediscovered the riffs and vocal hooks that will keeping you singing long after the CD has stopped playing. Marvellous.

As a fan of Stone Temple pilots earlier work I recently brought this record to see what this album sounded like as a lot of people seem to be divided about this album. There are some good tracks on this release such as the heavy rock openers 'Down' and 'Heaven and Hot Rods', the psychedelic 'Glide', and the nice acoustic driven ballad 'I got you'. Then there is the album highlight the doors influenced 'Atlanta' which closes the album magnificently. But... the quality of the other songs leave a lot to be desired. For example tracks like 'Prune', 'No Way Out, 'Church on Tuesday' and 'Sex and Violence' while listenable are hardly great tracks and it could be argued are 'filler tracks' and easily skipable. The quality is uneven on this record and it feels rushed in places or maybe that is the fault of the production players (I am no expert on what it takes to record or produce an album) but that is just a sense I get when listening to this record. Well, on Wikipedia it sais that this album made no.6 on the Billboard American charts and was certified Platinum by the RIAA so I guess the band knew what they were doing! If some dude out there in the world is reading this and wandering whether to buy this or not I would say get it cheap like I did and you can listen to a lot worse and thank god that all CDs aren't £12.99 anymore like they used to be in the old days! Amen.