"High Rise" Poll & Reviews

[Strat]

Solid throughout. I had no idea Chester was such a good vocalist. Definitely psyched to hear more from STPwCB.

couldnt agree more. i have shown a few songs to people who arent huge stp fans but all hate LP. every one of them expected it to suck and every one of them enjoyed it and were surprised how versatile chester is.

Exactly. I'm not an LP fan and Out of Time didn't impress me, but Chester is a surprisingly good singer, especially on Same on the Inside. I think he's going to surprise a lot of people.

[LPAssociationDerek]

Solid throughout. I had no idea Chester was such a good vocalist. Definitely psyched to hear more from STPwCB.

couldnt agree more. i have shown a few songs to people who arent huge stp fans but all hate LP. every one of them expected it to suck and every one of them enjoyed it and were surprised how versatile chester is.

Exactly. I'm not an LP fan and Out of Time didn't impress me, but Chester is a surprisingly good singer, especially on Same on the Inside. I think he's going to surprise a lot of people.

Chester always has had an incredible range and he's showed it off a lot in his Camp Freddy cover band (that covers AC/DC, Led Zeppelin etc). It's just he never had a chance to really show it off on the first few Linkin Park records for reasons that nobody really knows.

Case in point, here's Chester singing Jane's Addiction - Mountain Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncia7y9h4ew

and Whole Lotta Love - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbqCBzN_N80

And AC/DC "Highway To Hell" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoNQdRA--ks

And finally GNR's "Paradise City" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYH-G0S1tPM

[The Legacy]

Solid throughout. I had no idea Chester was such a good vocalist. Definitely psyched to hear more from STPwCB.

couldnt agree more. i have shown a few songs to people who arent huge stp fans but all hate LP. every one of them expected it to suck and every one of them enjoyed it and were surprised how versatile chester is.

Exactly. I'm not an LP fan and Out of Time didn't impress me, but Chester is a surprisingly good singer, especially on Same on the Inside. I think he's going to surprise a lot of people.

Chester always has had an incredible range and he's showed it off a lot in his Camp Freddy cover band (that covers AC/DC, Led Zeppelin etc). It's just he never had a chance to really show it off on the first few Linkin Park records for reasons that nobody really knows.

Case in point, here's Chester singing Jane's Addiction - Mountain Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncia7y9h4ew

and Whole Lotta Love - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbqCBzN_N80

And AC/DC "Highway To Hell" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoNQdRA--ks

And finally GNR's "Paradise City" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYH-G0S1tPM

first two really impressed me.

[LPAssociationDerek]

Oh and here's "Rolling In The Deep" just to show Chester's high range and soulful side (one of my favorite performances he's done. He gets really good at the end). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl0bSmoZynk

[MAJOR METAL]

The EP really has a old school feel to it, like the band were recording in a small place together.

[Strat]

Thanks Derek, some great clips. Chester's a lot more versatile than I imagined.

[lovemachine97]

Overall Two thumbs up here.  I'd give it an 7/8 out of 10 and I'm excited to see what a full length album would sound like. 


My thoughts:

The good-
Gotta say- I am enjoying it quite a bit as well.  THis is a good new direction for the band.  The EP is energetic and really does feel as if the entire band is fully vested again (finally!).  I think the first two songs are probably the weakest on the album.  After a few days I still cant get the chorus of Cry Cry out of my head.  Same On the Inside is probably my favorite new STP song since the reunion.  Chester shows STP and Scott proper respect by staying true to the formula while still managing to put his own melodic touch on STP.  He's a perfect fit for the new songs, yet they still sound like STP (especially Tomorrow). 

Rob's bass work is FANTASTIC on the EP.  Especially Cry Cry.  This EP is very bass driven and it sounds amazing. 

Not sure who produced it, but the production is much better than S/T. 


The bad-
Unfortunately this EP continues the new STP direction of (by in large) refusing to make songs longer than 4min.  I really feel STP is artificially limiting their music by trying to make overly radio friendly songs and trying to keep them from being too long.  I remember them starting to make comments way back in the SLDD era about, and its been getting worse since.  I'd really like to see STP just let the songs flow.  If they're 3min, great.  If they're 7min, thats great too.  I'm not looking for Pink Floyd here, I'd just like to see them focus more on making the song as great as possible without worrying about the running time.  I feel some of these songs could use an extra chorus/bridge/solo or maybe an extended outro.


Kretz keeps it a little too simple for my tastes on the new tracks.  He's never been overly flashy and I like that, but I'd like to see him be a little bit more tricky/experimental with his beats.  Its pretty straight up drum work on the EP. 


A relatively minor complaint but Chester's vocal runs at the end of Same on the Inside are a little out of place, they sound rushed.  There's a couple places there where it would have sounded better for him to hold the high note rather than go right back into the line.  Still a great song, but its a missed opportunity, IMO. 


Lyrics arent bad by any stretch, but Scott's lyrics are generally a step up.  I suspect Chester's lyrics will continue to improve as the band works together more and has more time to work on the songs.  Its a fair counterpoint that these songs from conception to release was VERY quick.  For this reason though, I do have some concerns about STPs music with Chester, because LP is a very active band, and as Chester has mentioned, is his #1 priority.  I worry a bit about Chester having enough time to really get in the trenches with STP and give his lyrics and melodies enough time to brew. 

My guess is that Eric played to the songs and complimented Robert's bass. I have a feeling it's kind of like why Michael Anthony's simple bass lines worked so well next to Eddie Van Halen's playing. Too much flash and the songs sounds too busy.

As far as song length, Doug Grean told me that Brendan O'Brien is very radio/single oriented, so that has probably rubbed off on them. But even Brendan allows a song to have some room to build, like Pearl Jam's new single Sirens. Maybe they didn't really want anything like that this time around.

[John]

Thank god the silent majority is starting to post. 

[Pingfah]

I'm still waiting for it to come out, this is killing me! Hopefully it will arrive on Saturday, if Amazon do their thing properly.

[DumbLove]

Regardless of the name, I'm considering this a DeLeo side project and comparing it to their past ones.  The EP is solid, and I enjoy it better than Army of Anyone and may put it on par with Talk Show.

[Stpilots98]

I'm going to hold off on voting until I get a good week of listening in.  But, what's with all the hate for Talk Show?  I enjoyed that album more than AOA and seem to be in the minority.  Anything with Peeling an orange is awesome in my book!

[kazuality]

My review in a spain web of alternative rock


http://www.binaural.es/critica-disco/stone-temple-pilots-high-rise/

[wickedgarden23]

I finally got to listen to the entire EP today now that it's streaming on Pandora, and I really like it. Let me say though while I've always liked Chester's work in Linkin Park, and I like High Rise, I can't see myself ever liking an entire body of work CheSTP puts out more than any of STP's albums. That being said, I think High Rise is as good as it could be for what it is. It's not all that creative, but I really like all of the melodies, musically and vocally, and think Chester is the perfect person to be singing with the DeLeos and Kretz right now.

I think Black Heart is my favorite song off the album, it's just so damn groovy. I can't decide how I'd rank all of the other songs...but I do like all of them and my only real complaint with the EP is that it's an EP and leaves me wanting more. I hope whenever they put out some more music they branch out a little bit and try some longer songs as well as some more creative, not as mainstream sounding stuff.


Also can't wait to blast High Rise in my car...I feel like it's gonna be perfect for driving

[HelloItsLate]

My review in a spain web of alternative rock


http://www.binaural.es/critica-disco/stone-temple-pilots-high-rise/

Hey, thanks for the review. Of course, I am a lame American who only speaks English, but I was able to read it (for the most part) using Google Translate, which works sometimes well – and sometimes not so well.
 
Here’s my favorite line from the translation – Google gave me this: “Turns out Erik De Leo and brothers were not willing to ‘ruin’ the legacy of his first album with a singer at half thus, Scott Weiland starts with his band ‘The Wildabouts’ this tour, leaving the remaining diapers peers in STP.”
 
You really gotta hand it to those remaining diapers in STP. 

[lovemachine97]

For those that didn't see it, my review was up early before this thread. It's here http://www.belowempty.com/forum/index.php?topic=9354.0

I really had only heard Chester's scream and expected him to sound as he did on Out of Time. I am pleasantly surprised with his vocals.