Stone Temple Pilots were positively vilified once their 1992 debut,
Core, started scaling the charts in 1993, pegged as fifth-rate
Pearl Jam copyists. It is true that the worst moments of
Core play like a parody of the Seattle scene -- titles like "Dead and Bloated" and "Crackerman" tell you that much, playing like really bad
Alice in Chains parodies, and the entire record tends to sink into gormless post-grunge sludge. Furthermore, even if it rocks pretty hard, it's usually without much character, sounding like cut-rate grunge. To be fair, it's more that they share the same influences as their peers than being overt copycats, but it's still a little disheartening all the same. If that's all that
Core was, it'd be as forgettable as
Seven Mary Three, but there are the hits that propelled it up the charts, songs that have remarkably stood the test of time to be highlights of their era. "Sex Type Thing" may have a clumsy anti-rape lyric that comes across as misogynist, but it survives on its terrifically lunk-headed riff, while "Wicked Garden" is a surprisingly effective piece of revivalist acid rock. Then, there's the slow acoustic crawl of "Creep" that works as well as anything on
AIC's Sap and, finally, "Plush," a majestic album rock revival more melodic and stylish than anything grunge produced outside of
Nirvana itself. These four songs aren't enough to salvage a fairly pedestrian debut, but they do find
STP to be nimble rock craftsmen when inspiration hits. [
Core was also released on LP in 2013.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine