What's funny is, Scott didn't even put a tremendous amount of effort into S/T and it's still awesome from a melodic standpoint. Its his lyrics that really suffer here. Worst on any album he's ever been a part of in my opinion. Take a Load Off still makes me cringe: "summer med fly ruled the airways mostly superstitious, now the kings of media invent the swine flu visions"
I mean what the hell is that? There's stuff like that all over the record where he's just making word soup and juxtaposing words that sound good together. I love his writing on Maver and First Kiss on Mars. Those songs are mint from a lyrical standpoint. I just wish he applied that same effort lyrically to the rest of the songs on the record, because the melodies are as good as they've ever been. I still love the album, I just didn't connect with it on a personal level like I had the previous 5.
I don't think Out of Time is any better. It's also kind of word soup and very basic. I'm gonna hold out casting blame on anyone inparticular because I have a feeling the DeLeos had a large input into the lyrics and it was rushed anyway. So we'll see, I'm not counting Chester 's lyrical abilities out yet, but I'm also not expect Scott.
Really? are we actually complaining on Scott lyrics at this point?
I mean, the man can write the most beautiful coherent lyrics such as in Wonderful or even in harder rock songs like Naked Sunday.
But he also lets his mind free to experiment with the words and he just writes down some "weird" lyrics that in the end, are still great!
Seven Caged Tigers or even Between The Lines are great examples of this.
3 of the 4 songs you just listed weren't even off S/T, which is the album I was referencing. Scott is my favorite lyricist of all time and I love S/T, but I don't think it's off base to say he didn't put a whole lot of effort into writing it, and that lyrically it's his weakest performance of the 6 STP albums.
It just makes me wonder if the DeLeos had more of a contribution lyrically this time around than they're letting on, and if Scott was even less involved than we thought. Would you even bat an eye if I told you the DeLeos wrote the lyrics to Bagman or Huckleberry Crumble?
Clearly the DeLeos didnt write ANY lyrics of the S/T. And i dont think it was "the weakest" effort by Scott in all the albums. Its just different.
Like it or not, STP is known for the constant changes of their sound. They have managed to put out great records since 1992 and each with a different vibe and sound to it.
Pherhaps the most "sound-alike" records are Core and Purple, and yet you can notice the difference.
Scott lyrics have varied during the years. Clearly his addiction has been the main topic, but the way he portraits its been different on each album
With the S/T he is more like a storyteller. And i doubt he made less effort than in previous albums. He just did it differently.
If you dont like it, thats more of a personal taste and choice. But for me, the quality its still there. Musically and lyrically.
The only "flaw" of that album was the "radical" change of the production, which was because they didnt bring in Brendan O Brien.
And even with that... the DeLeos managed to do a pretty decent job for being their first record produced by themselves.
