Core (Stone Temple Pilots album)

Core is the debut studio album by the American rock band Stone Temple Pilots, released by Atlantic Records on September 29, 1992.

Produced by Brendan O'Brien, Core became a massive commercial success, reaching number three on the Billboard 200 by July 1993 and has since been certified 8x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album would have four hit singles including "Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush": "Plush" would reach number one on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks and the music video received heavy rotation on MTV. Stone Temple Pilots would go on to win two awards for "Plush": an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist and a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.

The album initially received poor reviews despite its commercial success; the band was criticized for allegedly copying the musical style of other alternative acts, particularly Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Retrospectively, Core has been acknowledged as a seminal release of the alternative rock and grunge movement of the early 1990s. Core helped propel Stone Temple Pilots into the mainstream and remains their most commercially successful record. A 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition was released in 2017.

Background and recording

Stone Temple Pilots formed in 1986 when lead vocalist Scott Weiland and bassist Robert Deleo met at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two were discussing their relationships when it became clear they were dating the same girlfriend. Weiland and DeLeo would both move into an apartment in San Diego where they would begin to write music together and formed the band Swing. By 1989, drummer Eric Kretz and DeLeo's older brother who was a guitarist, Dean would join the band, which was renamed Mighty Joe Young. The band put out a demo in 1990 and slowly developed a huge following in the alternative rock scene of Southern California.

In the meantime, the band members would take on jobs to support themselves with Weiland working at a modeling agency and Robert at a guitar shop. Robert later said in 2017 that two would write songs during their spare time saying, "When either one of us had a musical idea, we'd call each other. He would usually have more time to run over and work it out. It was perfect because, since I was at a guitar shop, I could pick up a guitar right there. Scott didn't really play an instrument. When he had an idea, he would hum it to me."

By the beginning of 1992, Mighty Joe Young had earned a reputation in the San Diego and Hollywood club scene. The band caught the attention of A&R executive Tom Carolan who worked at Atlantic Records during their show at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles on April 1. Mighty Joe Young and producer Brendan O'Brien, who recently mixed Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, entered Rumbo Recorders the next month where they finished recording in a three week period. Dean said of the recording process, "It was an amazing time, man. It was so beautiful. And that was some of my greatest memories of Scott. He was so on his game and he was so healthy. He was electric and vibrant. There was an innocence, yet a determination with all of us.”

When the recording sessions ended, the band named the album Core, which refers to the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible. This is further represented in the album cover which depicts Eve stealing an apple from the Tree of Eden. Robert DeLeo would record the album with a blue G&L L2000 Jazz Bass played on an Ampeg SVT with a Sennheiser 421. Eric Kretz would play on a Yamaha Rock Tour Custom drumset while Dean DeLeo used a 1978 Les Paul Standard. By August, Core was scheduled to be released and the album had reached the mastering stage when the band's lawyer received word that a blues musician had already claimed the name Mighty Joe Young. Weiland, who was a fan of the STP Motor Oil stickers since his youth gave the band some ideas. Dean even suggested the name Stereo Temple Pirates which eventually would change into the name Stone Temple Pilots.

Music and lyrics

Core displayed the determination the band had to mix the hard rock approach of the 1970s and the alternative rock sound with a diverse range of other musical influences. According to Weiland, the band was found inspiration in the music of Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Metallica, and Led Zeppelin. Tracks such as "Dead & Bloated", "Sex Type Thing", "Piece of Pie", and "Crackerman" explored a heavy edge combined with alternative tunings similar to Soundgarden and Alice In Chains, while "Wicked Garden", "Sin", "Creep", and "Plush" shared a jazzy and psychedelic tone within the chord progressions.

The lyrical theme of the album is confusion within humanity. Weiland would further elaborate saying, "I guess I tend to find the darker shades of life more attractive than the yellows and oranges. I know it's something that I relate to when I listen to music. There's no way you can plan anything that happens. It would be hard for me to make an assessment of what it is people are attracted to. We're in a really shaky sort of social climate with all these different variables coming into play. So much racial discontent, so much anger from groups that have been discriminating against for so many years. There's a handful of people who are making music with a sort of public conscience, and I think it's just something that people relate to because of discontent."

"Sex Type Thing" was an anti-rape song written about abuse of power and control. "Wicked Garden" dealt with lost innocence, "Sin" focused on confusion, and "Naked Sunday" was about organized religion. Weiland stated, "They switch off people's minds and control the masses. It gives me a feeling of isolation, when I think about it. Organized religion does not view everyone as equals." "Creep", which reflected on alienation had different verses when it was released as a single.

"Piece of Pie" originated from a demo called "Only Dying". It was supposed to be the band's contribution to the soundtrack of The Crow but was later pulled in the aftermath of actor Brandon Lee's death. "Big Empty", which was the first single to their second album Purple, was used as its replacement. The lyrics for "Plush" were written in a hot tub and used a real life story about a woman who was kidnapped and later found dead in the early 90s, which acts as a metaphor for a lost relationship. Kretz even mentioned the Day of the Dead festival as an inspiration, as well as the band's uncertainty about their future.

Release

Core was released on September 29, 1992. It would be certified gold on April 20, 1993, and certfied platinum on June 9, 1993: the album has since gone platinum eight times. The album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200 on July 3, 1993. Stone Temple Pilots would set out on a tour, opening for Rage Against the Machine and Megadeth. The lead single "Sex Type Thing" would be released in December 1992, preceding the tour and would receive medium rotation on MTV. "Plush" was the band's breakthrough single, reaching number 1 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks and the music video would see the band win both an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist in 1993 and a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in March 1994.

"Creep" would be the third single and would peak at number 2 on the Billboard Album Rock Charts. The band would also promote Core with an American and European tour. In November 1993, the band appeared on a MTV Unplugged episode which aired in January 1994. The performance was never released as a standalone album and was only available in bootleg form for many years, until it was featured on the deluxe reissue of Core in 2017.

Critical reception

Core was initially ignored by critics upon its release. However, the band would start to gain notoriety as the album began receiving heavy airplay. Critics accused the band of allegedly stealing the musical sound of other popular alternative rock acts, primarily Pearl Jam. The lead single "Sex Type Thing" also garnered controversy with many claiming the lyrics as being supportive of date-rape. Deborah Frost of Entertainment Weekly stated that the song was, "Mike Tyson's rape defense transcribed into grunge rock. It's unclear whether STP, which sounds like it has crash-landed Pearl Jam into Alice in Chains, is condemning or identifying with its narrator. With a real point of view, this band could be bigger than an accident."

Paul Evans of Rolling Stone concluded that the "inner child of Stone Temple Pilots is Iron Maiden, and that kid just won't quit howling." Don Kaye of Kerrang! praised the band's "confidence and identity," unusual in debut albums. Jeremy Clarke of Select also gave a positive review saying, "Core is the real thing - a tough, loaded and listenable set with enough identity to pre-empt accusations of copycat tail-chasing. What makes STP matter isn't just their sound, but that they're a respectable attempt at metal with brains."

The increasing divide between the band's critics and fans was shown in a Rolling Stone issue in January 1994 in which the magazine's critics and readers labeled Stone Temple Pilots as the Worst and Best New Band respectively. During the band's reunion in 2008, Weiland reflected on the initial mixed reviews of Core, saying to Entertainment Weekly, "It was really painful in the beginning because I just assumed that the critics would understand where we were coming from, and that these just weren't dumb rock songs.

Legacy

In the years since its release, Core has experienced a positive reevaluation. Several publications have considered Core as a standout and one of the seminal albums of the alternative rock scene of the early 1990s such as Ric Albano of Classic Rock Review who stated that, "the very fact that so many of the songs on Core have held up over the past two decades is testament to the quality of this material." Writing for Classic Rock, Emma Johnston wrote, "STP always encouraged their own hype, so this fully-stocked monument to their introduction to the world is a fitting one."

The singles "Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush" continue to be rock radio staples in the United States. Core was ranked number ten (preceded by Eric Clapton's acoustic live album Unplugged) on Guitar World magazine's top ten list of guitar albums of 1992. Rolling Stone ranked the album at No. 11 on its list of the "50 Greatest Grunge Albums" in 2019

Core helped propel Stone Temple Pilots into the mainstream. A 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Core which has a remastered version of the album, previously unreleased demos and b-sides, in addition to parts of three live performances from 1993 (Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, Reading Festival, and MTV Unplugged) was released on September 29, 2017. Core remains Stone Temple Pilots' best-selling album.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Weiland, except "Creep", written with Robert DeLeo and "Plush", written with Eric Kretz.

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes

Stone Temple Pilots

• Scott Weiland (credited as Weiland) – lead vocals
• Robert DeLeo – bass, backing vocals
• Dean DeLeo – guitars
• Eric Kretz – drums

Additional personnel

• Brendan O'Brien – production and mixing
• Steve Stewart – management
• Nick DiDia – engineer
• Dick Kaneshiro – 2nd engineer
• Tom Baker – mastering
• Kevin Design Hosmann – art director
• Katrina Dickson – photography
• Christian Clayton – illustration

Charts

Singles charts

Certifications

References