Perdida

WARNER

Toto, I don’t think we’re in the ‘90s anymore. LP #8 sees Stone Temple Pilots shed their signature hard-rock veneer, trading bassy wallops and overdrive for cool acoustic strumming and… Flute sections? Though a first spin might prove polarising, the band settle well into their newfound neo-country swing; where they pop up, electric guitars sear with a Southern twang that feels perfectly angular to Jeff Gutt’s rich, harmonic vocals (to that end, Gutt sounds much more at home here than he did on the 2018 self-titled LP). Slow-burners build the bulk of Perdida, but what the disc lacks in energy, it makes up tenfold in emotional weight. Whether or not they hit all the marks (spoiler: they do not), it’s commendable that STP took such a major stylistic risk – especially when it’d be so easy to rest on their laurels at this point.