1.
This song scores the lowest rating in pitchfork history. Now that they have released this, it is quite obvious who added the artistic side to the band. Yes, Scott Weiland wasn't consistent and he fell into trouble more than once or twice, but he had a vision that the Deleo brothers' riffs fit so well against. The mix of their musicianship, drummer Eric Kretz' Led Zeppelin hard rock style, and Weiland's Bowie-esque lyrics were the essence of STP. They truly were a band in which each member had their niche and could not be replaced without drastically altering the sound. "Out of Time", featuring new singer Chester Bennington (Linken Park) sounds exactly how you would expect it to, like an awful STP cover band trying to write their own songs. We can all admit, Bennington has a good voice, and I guess he can be considered the safe choice coming after Weiland and his unpredictable stage antics, but the band is now lacking any kind of surprise element, nor do they sound raw or interesting vocally. I'm sure some people out there may like this, Linken Park had a lot of fans, didn't they? But I don't. And I'm sure the fans that lived by STP classics will not accept this. It's rare that a band can replace a lead singer/songwriter successfully. They even used some Andy Warhol looking artwork (see above), but the fact remains, this combination isn't going to be good. If they prove me wrong when the full length comes out, I'll be 'unpleasantly' surprised, but this song is NOT a teaser for anything I want in my record collection. I had more respect for them when they tried the band- Talk Show. And that totally sucked as well.
Scott, if/when you're reading this, continue recording with The Wildabouts. Both of the Weiland solo records are brilliant, and though this new incarnation of STP will tarnish the band's legacy, real fans can tell the difference.
