You'll have to bear with me--I've never reviewed a greatest hits compilation album, and I didn't think that I ever would, but here I am, bringing you Thank You.
Thank You is the Stone Temple Pilots' sixth album and, apparently, their last record. The cover art and CD art consists of a field of sunflowers against a clear blue sky. When folded out, a young--and seemingly naked--woman is seen, holding a sunflower out toward the sky. It was released November 11, 2003 in the United States. The title is meant to be a thank you, directly to the fans.
It has fifteen tracks; one is an unreleased acoustic version of Plush, from the now-defunct MTV Headbangers' Ball, and the other is a "previously unreleased" studio recording of a new song, All In The Suit That You Wear. Since songs are covered either in other nodes, or in other album writeups, I'll be brief.
The Tracks
- Vasoline is first up, from Purple, and a good way to start the album, but,
- Down, from No. 4, would have been better, because it's a little more balls-out.
- Wicked Garden
was a surprise to see on this album. It's an excellent song, way back from the Core days.
- Big Empty, from both Purple and The Crow Soundtrack. I am very glad this song made it to the greatest hits.
- The fifth track is Plush, from Core, another track I'm surprised they didn't put first.
- Big Bang Baby is track six, and the only really good thing about the song is the video. It's the first single from Tiny Music, and is quite a dramatic change in sound from the previous tracks. Very different.
- The seventh track is Creep, from Core. Another nice acoustic-ish song thrown in amongst all the rocking.
- Eighth is Lady Picture Show, from Tiny Music, which wasn't even a single. It's not even a very good song. They would've been much better off had they tossed in Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down, from Scott Weiland's 12 Bar Blues, or something.
- Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart: here's where we return to rock music. One of the harder songs from Tiny Music, this one was also accompanied by an excellent, low-budget video.
- Track ten, Interstate Love song, from Purple. We get a pleasant respite before we get our collective asses handed to us by the next track.
- All In The Suit That You Wear is previously unreleased, and very, very excellent. It proves that, after years of redefining their sound, turning away from the post-grunge heavy rock and roll they became famous for, they can still kick your ass. Still, with the distorted, processed guitar sounds in the background throughout the song, they retain some of what they learned along the road.
- They follow up with a hard song, Sex Type Thing, their first single, from Core.
- Afterwards, Days of the Week, from the mediocre Shangri-La Dee Da. Not their best work, but they had to have some representation from their last album.
- The next track is Sour Girl, from No. 4. Great song, excellent to put it at the end of the album, aside from,
- the previous unreleased Plush, an acoustic version. It's just Scott sing and Dean on guitar. I guess they were forced into putting this on the album; it's not very good, the recording isn't exactly top-notch. And while Plush is a decent song, they could have, maybe, instead of putting this on, put a better song on. Like Army Ants, or something.
All in all, it's a good album, and it was cheap, too: I took a look around, and in Canada, it was a good five bucks cheaper than, say, a 50 Cent album, or Britney Spears.
I don't have a huge problem with it, as a compilation-sort of album is concerned. While other, older artists have a larger library of songs to dig from, this album takes care of pretty much every fan's needs. It does not, of course, adequately represent the entire Stone Temple Pilots experience (come on, no Army Ants, no I Got You, no Pretty Penny, not even a Dancing Days?) but it's a good album to get if you know who the Stone Temple Pilots are, but are unfamiliar with the name of that song you liked back in grade ten.
I would suggest buying this one if you're not a very big fan of the group (the price'll be right), and forget it if you're a big fan (the absolutely HUGE fans already have it). They could've organized the songs a bit better so that the album flows better from start to finish, and the lame acoustic Plush sticks out like a sore thumb.