Published on Oct 25, 2000
It’s somewhat difficult to fully explore
Core without looking at the history that has followed. Back
in 1992, the debut of this SoCal quartet was met with critical
acclaim and success. Thanks to their two hits, “Plush” and “Creep,”
the production efforts of Brendan O’Brian and solid word-of-mouth,
the Pilots were thrust into the echelon of alternative’s new stars
— right alonside Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In
Chains. The future seemed bright for vocalist Scott Weiland,
bassist Robert DeLeo, guitarist Dean DeLeo and drummer Eric
Kretz.
As we all know, things didn’t pan out as fully as one may have
hoped. Due to Scott Weiland’s recurring drug abuse and drug-related
problems, the band has been forced to stop, start and re-start
throughout the 90s. They even tried a new vocalist and changed
their name to Talk Show, but that went as well as Scott Weiland’s
solo effort. Currently, they’re back together and promoting their
latest effort,
No. 4. Still one cannot deny their abilities nor the
strength of their debut.
The album kicks off with the hard, yet catchy, “Dead &
Bloated.” It’s a proper intro to the album, mixing in the hard
rhythm set by Kretz and Robert DeLeo with the guitar licks of Dean
DeLeo and, on top of everything, the vocal delivery of Weiland.
From here you have the controversial hit, “Sex Type Thing.” A very
strong song with a driving rhythm, it speaks of the mind of a
rapist – but not celebrating it, as many detractors would have you
believe.
The Pilots carefully construct some of the best social
commentary since early U2. Listen to songs like “Wicked Garden,”
“Naked Sunday” and “Wet My Bed.” “Naked Sunday” speaks of how God
is used for the creation of war, while “Wicked Garden” employs
imagery from the classic short story “The Secret Garden” to speak
of depression and breaking out of it. Granted, it’s not on the
level Rage Against the Machine plow through, but it’s
something.
Amazingly, along with their rough and hard edges, the band also
manages to create some very melodic songs. “No Mercy” is
otherwordly and weird. The hit, “Plush” is very abstract and has
some great melodies. The album-closing, “Where The River Goes”
seems to be the band’s epic song. It goes through nearly eight
minutes shifting and swinging from its hard edges to greater
melody.
Still, the bad does have some strong rock in here. “Crackerman”
is a very hard song about Chef’s favorite crackers (oops, sorry,
wrong show). It nevertheless is very cool. “Creep” mid-tempoes
through a song about creeping in life. Of course, it became famous
for the line “I’m half the man I used to be” when Lorena Bobbit did
her thang. (OUCH!) Finally, “Sin” speaks about the power of vice.
In retrospect it’s very prophetic about Scott Weiland’s own
problems with powerful vices.
So, what has happened to this once-promising band? Well, like I
said above, they’re still out there, still promoting their work.
It’s a shame that their own problems have prevented them from
reaching the levels of success that they seemed destined to reach.
Of course, if you take a look, it seems all of alternative’s gods
have dissapeared. Pearl Jam is still out there, like STP. However,
Soundgarden has broken-up and Alice In Chains seems to have gone
that way. As for Nirvana, well, we all know what happened
there.
For the kids that grew up alongside me at the start of the ’90s,
Core is one of the albums we most remember. I couldn’t put
it down when I first got it. Close to a decade after its release,
it still holds up as a snapshot of a good band that seemed poised
to break through and become great. It didn’t. And, while one hopes
that Stone Temple Pilots may reach higher levels, their hardest
album still remains this one.