Core - Stone Temple Pilots (CD 1992)

Forget what the music press told you 10 years ago...hell, they themselves have.

Ten years ago, Stone Temple Pilots was, if certain music critics were to be believed, nothing more than a "Pearl Jam ripoff." If anything, this was funny because STP formed before PJ was even conceived (i.e., when Andy Wood was still alive). Anyways, while their debut album, Core, the album I'm now reviewing, is not their best work, it is still a highly enjoyable album of crunching guitar riffs, brain thumping drums, and sky high (no pun intended) vocal performances.

The album spawned 4 rock radio hits, ranging from the the driving Sex Type Thing and Wicked Garden to the band's biggest hit to date, the medium paced Plush, to the acoustic and depressing as hell ballad Creep.

I admit it, I was a Plush fan when I first got this disc. I thought that song was the greatest when I was 13. So while the rest of my 7th grade classmates were listening to Wrecks N Effect, I was jamming to STP. And they said I wasn't ahead of the grade back then... ;)

My favorite track would eventually become Crackerman though. This song is like the penultimate driving song. You can't help but air drum to this song, even though it's beat is the most basic of rock beats. Plus Weiland's vocal delivery was spot on with each line, I always thought of this song as a play on words because of said vocal delivery.

The band also shows off a pretty big Aerosmith influence in a couple of tracks, namely Dead and Bloated (some of those guitar licks just scream early 70s Joe Perry to me) and the album closing Where the River Goes, which sounds like Aerosmith in a lot more ways than just the guitar riffing of one Dean DeLeo.

Ironically, the one song on the record I never thought I truly understood was Creep, despite my using a line from it for my title. It is definitely a creepy little number, and depressing as well. I never really got how it became such a big hit, as it did nothing at all for me.

As I said before, the other singles did though. Sex Type Thing was a dirty dirty little number, and Wicked Garden was the perfect early 90s rock single.

Core became a cornerstone of 1990s rock collections not just because of the music, but because of who produced it: Brendan O'Brien. O'Brien's influence on the early albums of bands such as STP, Pearl Jam, and Rage Against the Machine cannot be understated, and I'm truly not sure if this album would sound as good as it does without his mastery.

That's not to say that this album is all O'Brien. That would be silly. Core is an essential addition to any true rock fan's collection. While not as diversified as later releases, it still rocks harder than most music being released today.