Tiny Music… Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop by Stone Temple Pilots

Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, Stone Temple Pilots' third album, came out on Atlantic on March 26, 1996, and it's the sound of a band shedding its skin in public. After following up Purple with a quiet 1995 away from the grind, the band regrouped at Westerly Ranch in Santa Ynez, California, moved in, and made the record where they lived. Brendan O'Brien was back in the producer's chair, as he had been for every album they'd made to that point.

What came out of that ranch is looser, stranger and a lot more fun than anyone expected. "Big Bang Baby" struts like a glam-rock peacock, "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" is all coiled riff and Scott Weiland's yowl, and "Lady Picture Show" drifts by on a gentle, Beatle-ish lilt. The heavy sludge of the early records gives way to jangle, swing and a sly sense of play.

The reviews were mixed at first, the same shrug the band had always gotten, but time has been kinder: the record is now praised for tearing up the band's sound and image and starting over. It entered the Billboard 200 at number four, while each of its three singles climbed to the top of the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on the way to double-platinum sales. The band toured behind it through 1996 and 1997, but the run was cut short by Weiland's ongoing struggles with substance abuse. No. 4 came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.