(Album Review) STONE TEMPLE PILOTS - Perdida

Release date Feb 20/20 (Rhino)

Review by Joe B

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It would be redundant to lament about 2020 and the hope for a better 2021. Fortunately, AC/DC’s Power Up was the musical gift we all needed (Says you! - ed). AC/DC kept it simple by releasing their straight ahead, classic hard rock sound and the result is a masterpiece.

Which brings us to the newest release of 2021, Stone Temple Pilot’s Perdida. STP manages to accomplish the opposite of what AC/DC did.

STP is my favorite band from the 90’s. Purple is in my top ten favorite albums of all time. Throw away all of the goofy musical labels from that period and what you get is straight-on, great hard rock.

Scott Weiland was a great singer, but also the key problem that prevented the band from gaining super stardom. It was Wieland’s drug problems that created the road blocks for STP and inevitably led to his early death. The band eventually gained firm footing with new singer Jeff Gutt. While the 2018’s Stone Temple Pilots was quite average and confusing, due to the fact it followed a much superior 2010 self-titled release, it showed that the band was ready to settle down and carry on with their brand.

Let’s cut to the chase here, Perdida sucks. It seems as though the band wants to self-sabotage the reformation. First, they release back to back self-titled albums, which is a huge mistake, then right when we need a hard rock classic the way AC/DC did it, STP decides to release a terrible all acoustic mess. Perdida could be one of the most unpleasant listens ever. Apparently, the band is trying to grasp at the classic unplugged sound of “Plush” or the great “Pretty Penny” but they strike out in miserable fashion. Perdida is filled with boring garbage. Every song sounds the same, which is really bad because every song on this album is bad. There is not one redeeming quality here. None of these songs are relaxing or emotive. Each song makes you want to skip to the next, which is just as bad, which in turn makes you skip to the next, which eventually leads to the end of a terrible album. To make matters worse, Gutt tries too hard to sound like Weiland, which is unfortunate because he doesn’t sound like the great singer he is, he sounds like a parody.

2021 just started with new hope. What we needed from Stone Temple Pilots was a kick ass hard rock album. Perdida is the exact opposite.

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