No. 4
Down leaves very little doubt about Stone Temple Pilots' intentions on No. 4. The guitar is thick, the rhythm is blunt and Scott Weiland sounds ready to meet both head-on. Yet the album's most persuasive moments often arrive after it stops insisting on its own weight.
The opening pair of Down and Heaven & Hot Rods is effective enough. Dean DeLeo has a strong feel for a riff that can carry a chorus, and the band plays with a compact physical force. No Way Out follows a similar path later in the sequence. These are satisfying hard-rock songs, though their impact depends more on the attack than on an unusual musical idea.
Pruno shows how a small change can help. The heavier parts gain definition from the space around the verses, giving the arrangement a little more depth. Church on Tuesday goes in a clearer pop direction, with a melody that does not need an aggressive surface to make itself felt. The contrast makes the opening songs seem less like a statement of policy and more like one part of the band's range.
Sour Girl is the key track. Its light movement and uneasy vocal line sit naturally together, and Robert DeLeo's bass adds shape beneath the tune. Weiland's restraint makes the song more affecting than a larger performance would have been. Glide has a different kind of lift, using its arrangement to create a wider, dreamier sound without abandoning the album's direct approach.
Some of the harder material is less distinctive. Sex & Violence and MC5 keep the energy up, but they offer fewer details to return to than the stronger pop songs. The record feels most individual when it allows its melodic instincts to take the lead.
Atlanta provides that opportunity at the finish. The slower pace and theatrical vocal have enough room to develop, giving No. 4 a more expansive closing mood. This is a solid, sometimes excellent album that reconnects the band's power with its gift for a tune. The balance is imperfect, but the highlights are far too strong to dismiss.
