Cons: Poor songwriting, You can tell their hearts just aren't in the music, This album is a real let down after experiencing their second album "Purple"
e_burrell's Full Review: Tiny Music...Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop by S...
Against my better judgment I bought The Stone Temple Pilot's debut album "Core" many years ago. I saw some promise in the group. When their sophomore effort "Purple" hit the stores I bought it and was blown away by the complexity of the songs, and by the evident talent of STP. When their third album "Tiny Music From the Vatican Gift Shop" was released I bought it and was devastated by what I heard. This album goes to show how quickly a group can sink from one album to another.
I'll get this out of the way right now. "Tiny Music…" is an utter disappointment. The songs lack the punch and originality found on both of STP's previous releases. Front man Scott Weiland's lyrics are completely uninspired. Of course this album was recorded amid much publicity of Weiland's addiction to heroin and his journeys into and out of rehab.
There are a FEW good songs on this album. The first single released was "Big Bang Baby". This song reminds me a lot of the Rolling Stones song "Jumping Jack Flash". I suppose it lies in the similarity in lyrics from "Big bang baby it's a crash, crash, crash" to "I'm Jumping Jack Flash it's a gas, gas, gas". The song seems to have a wonderful urgency that reminds me of previous singles from STP.
"Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart" also reminds me of something that you could find in previous and better STP material. This song was overplayed on the radio. My hypothesis is that besides this and "Lady Picture Show" (a VERY overrated cut) there was nothing else releasable from "Tiny Music…". The song has a good lead guitar part around the 1:50 mark, and brothers Robert and Dean Deleo do a good job with the music on this song. Also worth a mention is track 12 "Seven Caged Tigers". The lyrics are some of the strongest on the album.
As far as any other good tracks, good luck finding them.
You can tell that STP just wasn't together on this album. They either didn't know what to do about Weiland's downward spiral, or were so sick of one another they didn't care about what they were recording. It's unfortunate because they had matured into such a fine band by this point.
I wouldn't recommend "Tiny Music…" I'm not sure that STP can ever fully recover from this album. If you want to hear a talented, and once important band, then by ALL MEANS check out "Purple". but don't think twice about skipping this one.
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