No. 4

10/26/1999 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Janiss Garza

The most telling song lyrically on Stone Temple Pilots' latest LP is "I Got You," in which singer Scott Weiland coyly plays vulnerable while poking here and there at his need to stick needles in himself. It's the phoniest tune on the album, a manipulative ploy to gain sympathy for his tortured mind. Read between the lines and you find a selfish, self-involved individual.

That's not to say Weiland doesn't have a great poetic flair--he does. He just doesn't have much insight into himself, and perhaps that's why he's currently cooling his heels in the clink. There's a fine line between addiction and idiocy, and it's too bad STP's frontman has crossed that line again and again, because No. 4 is quite good. It mixes the dreamy, Beatlesque flourishes of the quartet's last album, Tiny Music, with the heavy grunge of their first two LPs.

And while that grungey approach initially brought the band success, it's this record's weakest link. Tunes like "Down" and "No Way Out" sound decidedly dated. But other tracks, such as "Heaven and Hot Rods," which is alternately swaggering and dreamy, and the psychotic, adrenaline-powered "Sex and Violence" shine. "Sour Girl," with its laid-back glow, is an especially captivating journey.

Kudos should go to the rest of STP--guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz--for their fine musical contributions. And for dealing with Weiland's peccadilloes, they deserve a Purple Heart.