Stone Temple Pilots – Core

A debut under a new name

Before the guitars enter “Dead & Bloated”, Scott Weiland’s voice has the opening to itself. Core takes that brief moment alone with the singer before the band adds its weight. Stone Temple Pilots released their debut in September 1992, but the new name concealed an existing shared history. As Mighty Joe Young, the musicians had recorded demos and developed an audience in Southern California. They changed names shortly before release because their earlier choice was already in use.

Weiland, guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz recorded with producer Brendan O’Brien at Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles, with Nick DiDia engineering. That partnership would help shape subsequent albums as well. On Core, the quartet’s immediate impact comes first: distinctive figures, an active rhythmic foundation and singing equally capable of conversational closeness and considerable force. The music has weight, but weight alone does not explain how its songs work or why they remain recognizable.

“Plush” and another side of the band

“Plush” reveals how much melody this lineup could carry. The guitar chords support a vocal line strong enough to survive without the full electric accompaniment, as later acoustic performances demonstrated. The song earned the band a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1994. Within the album, it also acts as a meeting point between the instruments’ heavier character and Weiland’s instinct for an expansive melody. Its identity depends on that relationship rather than on any one sound in isolation.

“Creep” brings the more restrained side forward. The distance between those two songs is considerable, yet the same four musicians inhabit both. The brief instrumental “No Memory” changes the pace before “Sin” occupies a larger space. There is therefore good reason to hear Core in sequence: its pauses and smaller transitions give the heavy passages their outlines. Listeners arriving through “Sex Type Thing” or “Wicked Garden” encounter an album that repeatedly changes its expression by reducing the density of its arrangements.

Below the wall of guitars

Robert DeLeo’s bass provides a rewarding route into the performances. Notice when it supports a guitar figure and when it adds an independent movement. Eric Kretz maintains the connection without having to fill every opening. Above them, Dean DeLeo works with contrasting chord shapes and textures. Shifting attention in this way can restore detail to even a familiar chorus: follow the rhythm section or an accompanying figure for a while instead of allowing the lead vocal to determine the entire experience.

The extended closing track, “Where the River Goes”, gives the band more time than the concise singles do. Rather than ending with a quick exclamation, it allows figures and moods to develop. Comparisons with other contemporary groups formed a large part of the album’s early reception. The songs themselves offer a more direct way in. The melodic curiosity that would become more prominent on Purple is already present, contained here within the heavier, more immediate language of the debut.

This edition

The Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 edition, AAPA 028-45, contains two 180-gram LPs running at 45 RPM. Ryan K. Smith mastered it at Sterling Sound from the original master tape, according to the publisher. The product listing names Quality Record Pressings and a tip-on gatefold by Stoughton Printing. This is the stereo album presentation, spread across four sides. Its mastering should be distinguished from the album’s other vinyl releases and multichannel editions.

Also on SACD: Core

Customer questions: Atlantic 75: which titles are worth buying? · Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Series: Atlantic 75 Series – all 75 albums, time journey and the people behind Atlantic

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.