Now sadly less of a band and more of a 70's Cop-thriller storyline, Stone Temple Pilots have been beseiged by troubles since their last album proper, Tiny Music. Singer Scott Weiland's notorious drug problems saw him in and out of rehab as much as the after-hours cleaner, and the other members of the band registered their vote of confidence in him by recording an entire album with a different singer under the name Talk Show. But here, things are back to normal (if only briefly), and Stone Temple Pilots are here again, but this time with a raw sound and a broken pair of rose-tinted spectacles.

No.4 seems unusual for Stone Temple Pilots as the album really has no universal, common thread to bind it together. Core had its Pearl Jam songsmithery, Purple its flower petals and incense and Tiny Music had flares and an ironic grin. No.4 however, in stark contrast is a mixed bag of post-grunge rock, over-soft ballads and tuneless mistakes.

Opener Down is more familiar STP territory but with a horror movie twist; distorted and pained heavy riffs clutter to a halt whilst Weiland pleads delicately over the top, only to culminate in a scream and another razor edged chorus. STP go goth? Very nearly.

But as it is with No.4 with its lack of consistency, closing song Atlanta is almost a straight lift of Talk Show's own ending track Fill The Fields, sounding more like The Divine Comedy than a snarling grunge band and with a clever orchestral backing and an only just redeeming xylophone conclusion. Heaven and Hot Rods however mimics the silky 70's sound of Tiny Music with a spiralling chorus and ultra-long main riff, whilst Sour Girl is back to the style of Weiland's familiar "bitch ballad", but this time with an eerily catchy pop chorus.

Goth and bad music may go hand in hand elsewhere, but STP won't be able to get away with it for long. Neither will they be able to keep producing shameless fillers such as the terrible Sex And Violence and MC5, two good reasons why skip buttons were invented.

There are undoubtedly some of Stone Temple Pilots' more experimental, innovative and troubled moments here, but No.4 really does lack that unified "feel" that was so dominant with the other albums, veering from cutting and almost industrial at one moment, only to morph into a ballad within minutes.

If this was a 5 or 6 track EP then maybe it would be hailed as a diverse and varied landmark for Stone Temple Pilots, but sadly this was never to be the case.

Some great tunes, but not enough to make a great album.

7/10

Karl Cremin.

Album Reviews
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