Hello everyone, been a while.
I started listening to the whole album again just last week and I can't believe how amazing it is. Each song, while different, kinda flows together almost perfectly. I still consider "Days of the Week" the best first radio single while "Coma" or "Wonderful" should've followed suit. That's just my opinion. My favorite songs from this album always seemed to change, but the one that remains the most consistent is "Long Way Home". It's just a perfect last song. The album starts with hard rock and ends with hard rock, which is funny considering most of the middle is filled with somber, melodic songs. I don't know how the guys did it, but they took the sound of the previous 4 albums and layed them all in 13, excellent tracks. The birth of his son definitely inspired Weiland to write some of his best.
Now, it's not as solid as say, Purple or Core, but with your first couple listens, it keeps you guessing as to what's next as each track progresses, which is what I really like about this album. If anybody wanted to know the perfect amalgamation of their sound and the best album to represent STP as a whole, I would tell them to listen to Shangri-LA DEE DA.