Hybrid-SACD - UDSACD 2294 Read more.
1. Press Play
2. Pop’s Love Suicide
3. Tumble In The Rough
4. Big Bang Baby
5. Lady Picture Show
6. And So I Know
7. Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart
8. Art School Girl
9. Adhesive
10. Ride The Cliché
11. Daisy
12. Seven Caged Tigers
If great art, as many believe, is inherently polarizing, then “Tiny Music... Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop” by Stone Temple Pilots is undoubtedly the Californian band's best album. On their third LP, singer Scott Weiland and his bandmates expanded their grunge repertoire with a clever mix of glam rock, psychedelia, pop and other styles – which was only partially well received by die-hard grunge fans, and the album was both celebrated and panned upon its release in the spring of 1996. Today, “Tiny Music... Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop” is viewed differently: the double platinum-selling album is rightly considered a creative masterpiece.
Under the direction of producer Brendan O'Brien, Stone Temple Pilots used every opportunity available to them to capture a broad mix of textures, space, and atmosphere and underscore their ambitions, which went far beyond the status of an “alternative” band. None other than Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins – who, like many colleagues and critics, felt the urgent need to reevaluate the album as time passed and the self-importance of the “alternative” scene faded – praised Weiland's achievement with the words: “Like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that elevated his music to a unique and elusive aesthetic soundscape. .The album is full of indirect references to acts such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Cheap Trick, T. Rex, and Lush. At the time, people didn't understand that Stone Temple Pilots were paying homage and having fun doing it. Skeptics and cynics also closed their ears to the outstanding pop craftsmanship, catchy hooks, and clever commentary on the machinations of the music industry and fame.
Lovingly mastered from the original tapes at MoFi's California studio, this limited hybrid SACD presents this rock classic in stunning audiophile quality for the first time: the wealth of detail and timbres can be heard with unprecedented clarity and presence, conveying exactly the power and force that every rock album deserves. The depth, timbre, and pitch of Weiland's unique voice are shown in their true light. The MoFi hybrid SACD proves why “Tiny Music... Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop” is one of the most impressive albums in rock history: part tongue-in-cheek satire, part homage to the glitter rock era, part middle finger to the hip crowd, it invites you to “Press Play” again and again.
