Stone Temple Pilots

As it stands, Stone Temple Pilots is a good solid record and an inadvertent testament to the fact that these guys need each other.

Displaying impressive vocal polish from outspoken frontman Scott Weiland; blazing guitar solos over tight, crunch-laden instrumentation; and grungy takes on Lennon/McCartney melodicism, STP asserts its place among seminal hard-rock chameleons.

The 12 tracks blend essentially everything STP ever did well without sounding like a stitched-together version of past hits.

Said new record is what one would expect: wholly similar to their first three records in that it’s got three possible hit singles, a useless Side B, and is proudly derivative of at least six other bands. They are amusingly impervious to trends. So long as you can get your head around the fact that it’s, y’know, Stone Temple Pilots, this, their self-titled sixth full-length, is far better than any pointless reunion album needs to be.

Scott Weiland sounds downright effervescent on the first Stone Temple Pilots disc in nearly a decade. There's nothing new here, just cheap and easy pop-rock mimicry (the Beatles, Petty, Nirvana, Bowie, Aerosmith), siphoned through spry, crunchy grunge riffs.

Hallelujah! Grunge legends stand the test of time.

The shape of the Top 40 has changed significantly since the early '00s; these days there's far less space than there used to be for white guys with guitars. So although some of these songs feel like hits, their success seems far from guaranteed.

You can’t really fault the band for successfully doing much what it did in the 90s, but don’t expect Purple. There’s no Vasoline or Interstate Love Song.

2010 brings us one more Stone Temple Pilots album, a far more fitting epilogue (or, perhaps, next chapter) for such a successful career even as it actually manages to be more overtly derivative than any album they’ve released thus far.

Loaded with heady guitar trips and crunching grooves, all topped off with flamboyant frontman Scott Weiland’s soulful vocal (which sounds all the better for his newly cleaned-up lifestyle), this is classic STP.

Not that long ago, STP would have struggled to hit the simple sparkle of "Cinnamon," with its falling jangle and "Yeah, c'mon, c'mon" chorus. The sunshine is overdue, but it suits them.

It's not groundbreaking stuff, but it surpasses all expectations for a group who've spent almost a decade apart.

There are a couple groovy licks scattered here and there which are half decent, but otherwise it's a tepid exercise in mediocrity difficult to even feign interest in.