Stone Temple Pilots – Core (Remastered Super Deluxe Edition) (1992/2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

This September, Rhino are to reissue a 25th anniversary, four-disc super deluxe edition of Stone Temple Pilots 1992 debut Core. The Grammy winning album has sold over 8 million copies in the US alone and amongst its 12-tracks are the singles Sex Type Thing, Plush and Wicked Garden. The super deluxe edition reissue is a 4CD set. It includes a newly remastered version of the original album, and a very impressive amount of unreleased material. In fact, across the three bonus CDs is more than two hours of unheard demos and unissued live performances, including the band’s performance on MTV Unplugged.

Stone Temple Pilots were positively vilified once their 1992 debut, Core, started scaling the charts in 1993, pegged as fifth-rate Pearl Jam copyists. It is true that the worst moments of Core play like a parody of the Seattle scene — titles like “Dead and Bloated” and “Crackerman” tell you that much, playing like really bad Alice in Chains parodies, and the entire record tends to sink into gormless post-grunge sludge. Furthermore, even if it rocks pretty hard, it’s usually without much character, sounding like cut-rate grunge. To be fair, it’s more that they share the same influences as their peers than being overt copycats, but it’s still a little disheartening all the same. If that’s all that Core was, it’d be as forgettable as Seven Mary Three, but there are the hits that propelled it up the charts, songs that have remarkably stood the test of time to be highlights of their era. “Sex Type Thing” may have a clumsy anti-rape lyric that comes across as misogynist, but it survives on its terrifically lunk-headed riff, while “Wicked Garden” is a surprisingly effective piece of revivalist acid rock. Then, there’s the slow acoustic crawl of “Creep” that works as well as anything on AIC’s Sap and, finally, “Plush,” a majestic album rock revival more melodic and stylish than anything grunge produced outside of Nirvana itself. These four songs aren’t enough to salvage a fairly pedestrian debut, but they do find STP to be nimble rock craftsmen when inspiration hits.

Tracklist:
1-01. Stone Temple Pilots – Dead & Bloated (Remastered) (05:10)
1-02. Stone Temple Pilots – Sex Type Thing (Remastered) (03:37)
1-03. Stone Temple Pilots – Wicked Garden (Remastered) (04:05)
1-04. Stone Temple Pilots – No Memory (Remastered) (01:20)
1-05. Stone Temple Pilots – Sin (Remastered) (06:04)
1-06. Stone Temple Pilots – Naked Sunday (Remastered) (03:49)
1-07. Stone Temple Pilots – Creep (Remastered) (05:34)
1-08. Stone Temple Pilots – Piece of Pie (Remastered) (05:24)
1-09. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Remastered) (05:13)
1-10. Stone Temple Pilots – Wet My Bed (Remastered) (01:36)
1-11. Stone Temple Pilots – Crackerman (Remastered) (03:14)
1-12. Stone Temple Pilots – Where The River Goes (Remastered) (08:30)
2-01. Stone Temple Pilots – Only Dying (Demo) (05:19)
2-02. Stone Temple Pilots – Wicked Garden (Demo) (03:49)
2-03. Stone Temple Pilots – Naked Sunday (Demo) (03:42)
2-04. Stone Temple Pilots – Where The River Goes (Demo) (07:16)
2-05. Stone Temple Pilots – Dead & Bloated (Demo) (05:03)
2-06. Stone Temple Pilots – Sex Type Thing (Demo) (03:24)
2-07. Stone Temple Pilots – Sin (Demo) (06:14)
2-08. Stone Temple Pilots – Creep (Demo) (05:39)
2-09. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Demo) (05:05)
2-10. Stone Temple Pilots – Sex Type Thing (Swing Type Version) [Remastered] (04:23)
2-11. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Acoustic Type Version) [Remastered] (04:49)
2-12. Stone Temple Pilots – Creep (New Version) [Remastered] (05:34)
2-13. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Acoustic From MTV Headbanger’s Ball, Take 1) [Live] [Remastered] (05:28)
3-01. Stone Temple Pilots – Crackerman (Live At Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, 7/2/93) (03:29)
3-02. Stone Temple Pilots – Wicked Garden (Live At Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, 7/2/93) (04:41)
3-03. Stone Temple Pilots – No Memory (Live At Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, 7/2/93) (01:14)
3-04. Stone Temple Pilots – Sin (Live At Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, 7/2/93) (06:25)
3-05. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Live At Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, 7/2/93) (05:05)
3-06. Stone Temple Pilots – Where The River Goes (Live At Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, 7/2/93) (09:10)
3-07. Stone Temple Pilots – Sex Type Thing (Live At Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, 7/2/93) (04:11)
3-08. Stone Temple Pilots – Wet My Bed (Live At Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, 7/2/93) (02:49)
3-09. Stone Temple Pilots – Naked Sunday (Live At Castaic Lake Natural Amphitheater, 7/2/93) (04:21)
3-10. Stone Temple Pilots – Wicked Garden (Live At The Reading Festival ’93, England 8/27/93) (04:31)
3-11. Stone Temple Pilots – No Memory (Live At The Reading Festival ’93, England 8/27/93) (01:15)
3-12. Stone Temple Pilots – Sin (Live At The Reading Festival ’93, England 8/27/93) (06:57)
3-13. Stone Temple Pilots – Lounge Fly (Live At The Reading Festival ’93, England 8/27/93) (06:06)
3-14. Stone Temple Pilots – Dead & Bloated (Live At The Reading Festival ’93, England 8/27/93) (04:47)
3-15. Stone Temple Pilots – Sex Type Thing (Live At The Reading Festival ’93, England 8/27/93) (04:00)
3-16. Stone Temple Pilots – Naked Sunday (Live At The Reading Festival ’93, England 8/27/93) (04:15)
4-01. Stone Temple Pilots – Crackerman (Live) [MTV Unplugged, 11/17/93] (04:04)
4-02. Stone Temple Pilots – Creep (Live) [MTV Unplugged, 11/17/93] (05:48)
4-03. Stone Temple Pilots – Andy Warhol (Live) [MTV Unplugged, 11/17/93] (02:53)
4-04. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Live) [MTV Unplugged, 11/17/93] (05:46)
4-05. Stone Temple Pilots – Big Empty (Live) [MTV Unplugged, 11/17/93] (04:57)
4-06. Stone Temple Pilots – Wicked Garden (Live) [MTV Unplugged, 11/17/93] (04:19)
4-07. Stone Temple Pilots – Sex Type Thing (Live) [MTV Unplugged, 11/17/93] (04:28)