Shangri-La Dee Da

1	Dumb Love
2	Days of the Week
3	Coma
4	Hollywood Bitch
5	Wonderful
6	Black Again
7	Hello it's Late
8	Too Cool Queenie
9	Regeneration
10	Bi-Polar Bear
11	Transmissions from a Lonely Room
12	A Song for Sleeping
13	Long Way Home

Barnes & Noble

A fair amount of the buzz surrounding the release of Stone Temple Pilots' last album, No. 4, stemmed from morbid curiosity over whether Scott Weiland could return to functionality. Having passed that test with apparent ease, Weiland was free to concentrate solely on making music this time around -- and the results are mighty impressive indeed. Shangri-La Dee Da finds STP more focused than at any time since their multiplatinum debut, which could be seen as its spiritual (if not sonic) twin. Introspective tales like "Dumb Love" and the surprisingly tender fatherhood paean, "A Song for Sleeping," are matched to burnished, aching melodies that resonate with a mature simplicity reminiscent of mid-period Zeppelin. On the other hand, the anger, usually self-directed, that punctuates "Coma" and "Hollywood Bitch" brings out the beast in guitarist Dean DeLeo, whose power chords detonate like land mines, blowing huge holes for drummer Eric Kretz to fill. Weiland's voice, still quite fluid after all these years, is at its most expressive, tripping out lackadaisically here, crooning in Morrison-like splendor there: He seems to have made peace with his past, but more important, it sounds like he -- and the rest of the band -- is ready to leap into the future. David Sprague

All Music Guide

No. 4 gave Stone Temple Pilots the comeback they were looking for, albeit a little later and a little differently than expected. Nearly a year after its release, "Sour Girl" gave the band its biggest hit in years, and it set up their fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da, perfectly. They seized this opportunity by turning out the same record as the time before, splitting the difference between heavy rockers and sugar-sweet psych-pop tunes. That's not a bad thing, nor is it unexpected, since they've basically been staking this same territory since Tiny Music, yet at this point, it feels as if the Pilots are comfortably within a musical groove, no matter how much turmoil they have privately. And, while this doesn't result in a particularly surprising record, it's not an album that's bad, either. Here, as on 4, they're not just better on the pop tunes, they're phenomenal on the pop tunes. Regardless of their critical reputation, no rock band of their time turned out such a consistently dazzling streak of pop tunes. Sometimes, the rockers do catch hold -- "Dumb Love" provides a gripping opening, "Hollywood Bitch" has a real sense of propulsion, the dreamy "Hello It's Late" has a gentle rush of its own -- but, by this point, they don't seem as interesting as the excursions into psych-pop that gives Shangri-La Dee Da its real core. That's nothing new, but that's not a bad thing at all. Stephen Thomas Erlewine