[.ca] Purple

Amazon.com essential recording:
Having scored a massive hit with their debut album, Core, Stone Temple Pilots returned to the same sludge-filled well for Purple, only to come up with an album that's harder, more concise, and filled with thunderous, punishing riffs. Headbangers will rejoice over the grinding guitars of "Meatplow," "Vasoline," "Lounge Fly," and "Unglued," but the album reveals far more than one dimension. They back off the throttle for the hushed (though still intense) "Pretty Penny," "Big Empty" puts a respectable spin on the phrase "power ballad," and the catchy, hook-filled "Interstate Love Song" asserts itself as one of the most memorable alt-rock singles of the '90s. --Daniel Durchholz

"Sing a yellow Nectarine" complements Purple's Psychedelic!!:
Purple collided with Weiland's surfacing drug addiction, which was unmasked in the middle of the Purple tour in 1995 with his drug bust outside an uncleanly disreputable California motel, crushing the remainder of Purple's tour. It's doubtful whether Weiland's singing talent-which he intrinsically possesses, make no mistake, despite STP's humiliatingly last two CDs-is helped or hurt by hard drugs, although one contention is that his vocal chords could've degenerated from them, resulting in the abysmal chaos of the final STP CDs. Indisputably, Purple, along with Core, constitute STP's BEST albums, and Purple ranks just instantly behind Core, albeit the difference is marginal since Purple may not have the 100%, total grinding ferocity that Core owned, but its respective increased variedness, long-ranging song-scale, and grungy hardness in most songs finalize Purple as one of STP's defining cornerstones. Weiland did have a great voice-since regenerated laudably in Velvet Revolver, after degenerating on No.4 and SLDD-it can be heard crooning gravelly on tracks like Kitchenware & Candybars, Big Empty, and Pretty Penny, belting coarsely on songs like Interstate Love Song, Lounge Fly and Meatplow, and bellowing gutturally on offerings Vasoline and Silvergun Superman, or screaming thunderously on Unglued and Army Ants. Because Core was their grunge-debut, Weiland's voice there was manipulated to embody the quintessential Vedder-like growls-more or less the same, deep, raging barks; not that that's detrimental. In Purple, Weiland eases up just slightly, and gives his voice more differential ranges as a tradeoff. His vocal range on Purple typifies an effort to broaden his capabilities somewhat to a more diverse range of tunes to sing, encompassing anything from soft to loud to grinding. On Meatplow, his tone is almost that of a drawl, in that it's slack-jawed and raspy over Meatplow's bulldozing and chugging riffs. On Silvergun Superman, Weiland adjusts subtly again, this time murmuring introspectively and intimidatingly in the versus before combusting in passionately sung vocals in the chorus. In Vasoline, his vocals are of a mesmerizing, hypnotic quality. Pretty Penny, Kitchenware & Candybars and Big Empty's vocals exhibit more tenderly yearning characteristics, as Weiland seems to be reflecting ruefully, although Big Empty's singing rejuvenates in the chorus with raw belting. In Lounge Fly, Weiland reaches increasingly morosely grim territory, his vocals overcasting the song's fabric, yet in a haunting evocativeness. Interstate Love Song sees him transitioning again to more booming power-singing, richly stretching each note to completion. On both Army Ants and Unglued, Weiland lets loose using the most unbridled exertion, lending those songs some turbulence. While STP's likely recalled for their singer's renown-off-stage exploits and singing mastery-STP owns a hidden ace up their sleeve in one of the most undeservedly underrated guitarists: Dean DeLeo. DeLeo's, who's famed for some memorable solos, style is greater along the lines of classic rock instead of more the infectious metal adept to stunning solos. His fruits can be enjoyed on Meatplow, the impressionable Lounge Fly, Silvergun Superman's durative solo at the end, Big Empty's revving-up interlude, Unglued's spastically charged riffs, Army Ants' explosively driving solo, and Kitchenware & Candybars' grand-opus-like finale. Indelible DeLeo riffs also come to mind, such as the world-famous Vasoline's hypnotic, repetitive, brainwashing licks, Lounge Fly's scorchingly, wailingly heat-seeking chords, Meatplow's sludgy, foul, grating rumbling, for a change of pace, even Interstate Love Song's lighter, hooky strumming, Silvergun Superman's aggressively charging drive and blaring effects, Unglued's ferociously assaulting hooks, Army Ants' purely unadulterated, tumultuous velocity, or even Kitchenware & Candybars' movingly poignant chords interspersed with hooky acoustics. DeLeo is never given his due credit, and neither is Eric Kretz, the drummer. Kretz's hits come across ruthlessly as some of the most solid, heavy drumming ever, with a generous usage of the cymbals. Purple's divergent from Core in a single, preeminent manner: its irreparable psychedelic, causing interpretations of sometimes spacey hallucination. It's blatant Weiland was practicing crushing recreational use on this one, right???? Although not as immoderate as on Tiny Music, where this degenerated into an STP trend, Purple's psychedelic is evident on key songs. On Still Remains, the lyrics alone are enough to incur reactions of bizarre repulsion. The kinds of unrealistically abstract distortions that Weiland's included about stabbing thorns, orange-blossom breezes, dragon flies and singing yellow nectarines impose absolute unorthodoxy. However, this crafts a creative, refreshing turn that arouses greater interest, instead of just STP's usual traits of head-banging force. On the diverse side, other new variations STP's included are toned-down songs like acoustic Pretty Penny, essentially a campfire song, and Big Empty, a self-blaming ode. Songs like Lounge Fly and Kitchenware & Candybars employ soft-to-loud dynamics, with usually provocative or yearning, quieter verses and searing guitar work accompanied by full-throttle singing and playing in the chorus. But Interstate Love Song manages to counterbalance breezy hooks alongside grungy guitars nonetheless. On the more Core-tilted side, Vasoline, Meatplow, Unglued and Silvergun Superman all subsidize the hardest side to musical approach, as each features harsh-sung vocals and the most drubbing or grating jams. It can't be disputed that Purple was STP's LAST respectable and prime album, and signified a peaking of the band, as Tiny Music cautioned a stunning careen in quality, with the two follow-up nightmares No.4 and SLDD dilapidating even worse. Sales figures incontestably support this assessment as does fan reaction. STP was a tad influenced by the classic rock route on Purple, as some DeLeo solos on Silvergun Superman, Meatplow, Kitchenware & Candybars, Vasoline, Big Empty, Lounge Fly and Army Ants solidify. The mentality on the mood of Purple's songs is on the whole a somewhat experimental one, with STP branching out into subtly newer fortes. Purple, thusly, is also a diverse trip for one's mind, taking the lucky listener on an aurally sonic intoxication ranging from the spacey textures of STP's more abstract and trippy ideas to their concrete, identifiable territory of hard grunge that they introduced themselves with on Core with positively no filler, a greater remarkable achievement in itself when considering the rarity of such flawless chance.

True grunge:
Purple was the first time I had heard of Stone Temple Pilots, and then I listened to the rest, becoming an instant fan. What this album does is abandon the Core sound and really gets into that grunge mode, but they do it gracefully, and looking back, everyone knows they succeeded. This did not intend to compare with what Nirvana was doing, producing some good catchy tunes like Meatplow, Vasoline, Big Empty, and of course, Interstate Love Song. It belongs in every music fan's CD collection. Nuff said.

I wish I could give this more stars!:
This is the best album I have ever listened to. It's not often that I find a CD where every single track is GREAT (not just good)...but this is it! This CD is the best that Scott and crew has to offer. It has the artsy elements of "Tiny Music..." but still maintains the power rock of "Core". I would reccomend this CD to anyone and everyone, especially fans of STP.

Another classic:
This is the second album for the trippy 90's hard rock group. While STP was unfairly lumped in with the grunge-rockers of the era, STP was in reality a hard rock band, sounding straight out of say, 1975. All that with some grunge influnces, of course. This album includes some of the band's biggest hits, like 'Interstate Love Song', 'Big Empty', and 'Vasoline'. While not being as hard-drivingly heavy as the previous album, the band have not gone light. I love all of the songs on here. Scott's voice, I feel has matured a little bit, espescially on tracks like 'Big Empty', which gives a new meaning to the term 'power ballad'. Buy this album, it's a tried and true classic.

A Musicians review of this album...:
In retrospect, 'Purple' is the most unique album to come out of the grunge period. It has style, hard rocking riffs, great melodies, sing-a-long lyrics, and on top of that a very diverse/ecclectic collection of well recorded, wonderfully crafted songs. The significance of this album is that it shows a band who is no longer just going through the motions, but is actually creating and evolving into true 'songwriters and arraingers'. Each song has it's own character and feel which is almost absent from all other 'Grunge' releases of it's time. They are all unique and diverse, but they don't lose their edge and wit. The prominent melodic bass lines (Mr DeLeo is very underrated) and unique chord structures (So is the other Mr. DeLeo) are what brings life to these recordings. STP have always delivered with each album they've released. They are great songwriters, and I feel that this album is the perfect summation of all of their works. Rock, pop/rock, accoustic, funky/groovy, psychadelic... It's all here. One of the top 10 albums of the 90's!! All the best, -AndyMan-

• Meat Plow
• Vasoline
• Lounge Fly
• Interstate Love Song
• Still Remains
• Pretty Penny
• Silver Gun Superman
• Big Empty
• Unglued
• Army Ants
• Kitchen Ware & Candy Bars