Shangri-La Dee Da
Shangri-La Dee Da has enough good melodies to make its occasional uncertainty frustrating. Stone Temple Pilots can still move easily between a bruising riff and a beautifully arranged pop song. What is less clear is how all those songs are meant to sit beside one another.
Dumb Love makes a forceful opening, with a low guitar sound and a vocal performance that pushes straight into the groove. Coma has a similar physical appeal. These tracks establish the harder side of the album quickly, but the lighter material soon proves more interesting. Days of the Week is short and catchy, although its briskness makes it feel almost too eager to get through its ideas.
Wonderful gives the record room to settle. The acoustic arrangement leaves Scott Weiland's singing exposed, and the gradual increase in intensity works because the tune can support it. Hello It's Late is better still, with the bass and restrained guitar parts giving the vocal a gentle forward motion. The song is carefully built without announcing its care at every turn.
Black Again also benefits from layered voices and a dreamier atmosphere. This is where the DeLeo brothers' ear for colour matters most. The instruments can make a melody feel slightly strange while keeping it inviting, and the band's sense of pop does not depend on making every chorus larger than the last.
The problem is that the less developed songs are placed alongside work this assured. A few of the heavier passages settle for a familiar riff and attitude, while some gentler tracks soften the mood without adding a new idea. The record moves between styles more successfully than it builds an overall direction. That makes it easier to recommend particular songs than the complete sequence.
There is still plenty to enjoy in the playing and vocal detail. Hollywood Bitch supplies a useful burst of momentum, and the quieter writing reveals an expressive side of Weiland that deserves the space. Shangri-La Dee Da falls short of the band's most imaginative albums, but its better songs show how strong the underlying melodic instincts remained.
