PacManY2J's Full Review: Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop by S...
With their third album, Tiny Music ... Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop, the Stone Temple Pilots began a period of musical exploration. While Core was the hard-hitting "grunge" album and Purple contained the slower songs that turned into mammoth hits, Tiny Music ... was a more experimental one. This album managed to achieve a balance of rocking out, hit producing, and just plain doing whatever they wanted.
There is a noticeable difference between lead singer Scott Weiland's voice here and his voice on the previous albums. It's not as deep and instead a bit grainier. This is the sound he continued to have on subsequent albums. It sounds cool, but I don’t like it quite as much as the old sound.
The singles from this album were mostly hard rockers. "Tumble in the Rough" is a choppy but infectious tune, which relies heavily on a pulsing guitar riff. "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" is one of the band's finest songs – a fun piece of rock that's sure to grace radio waves for years to come. "Big Bang Baby" is one of those love 'em or hate 'em songs. I love it. It's catchy, gritty, and psychedelic all at once. It's so all over the place yet cohesive. If a friend asks you what STP sounds like, this might be the best introduction.
The other release from Tiny Music ... was "Lady Picture Show", a slow, swayable, almost Beatles-like number. This is a perfect example of how STP can be great whether heavy or soft. Other such examples on this album come in the forms of "Seven Caged Tigers" and "Adhesive," two of the band's many works of beauty.
One track that stands way out is "Art School Girl." It begins with a simple but punchy guitar riff with Weiland singing softly about his girlfriend who goes to art school. Then, out of nowhere, the song erupts into a loud, coarse chorus of "I told you five or four times / I told you five or four times." This song does not sound like a typical STP song - it’s more like an STP / System of a Down lovechild. It's so crazy and chaotic that it's another one of those hit or misses that I happen to love.
There is a bit of filler on the album, but as far as filler goes, it's not bad. The instrumentals are very nice, especially "Daisy," thanks to the wonderful guitar playing of Robert DeLeo. As with most STP material, the lyrics are cryptic and at times downright odd. However, they are somehow cool and fun to sing along with even if I can't decipher them.
From start to finish, Tiny Music ... is a very good album that manages to maintain the band's familiar sound while developing a new one, something many bands don’t even try to do. It's missing a little something that could make it great, but it's still a must-have for STP fans.
Hmm ... ya know, I doubt I could find any of these songs in the Vatican gift shop. Good thing they're sold in other countries too.
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