STONE TEMPLE PILOTS: Stone Temple Pilots
Who is Jeff Gutt? That’s the first question casual fans will be asking as they check out the new Stone Temple Pilots disc. And the cynical answer is, he’s not Scott Weiland. But if the new self-titled album proves anything, it’s that the other three founding members of STP still bring the hooks. On many songs, it’s fair to say that Weiland might even be proud.
Until now, Jeff Gutt was best known as a contestant on one of those singing reality shows. (The X-Factor, as if it matters.). So as you would expect, he can carry a tune. Stone Temple Pilots opens with Middle of Nowhere and Guilty, two tracks that sound like they could be deep cuts from Purple or Tiny Music... By the third track and first single Meadow, you’ll probably even start to like Jeff Gutt; he's startlingly good at evoking Scott Weiland without sounding like he’s doing an impression. When the band gets psychedelic on Thought She'd Be Mine and The Art of Letting Go, Gutt is able to slip right into Weiland's lounge-act croon. Finest Hour may or may not be a eulogy; if so, it's an effective one.
The worst thing you can say about Jeff Gutt: He’s not strikingly original- at least, not yet. He doesn’t bring the infectious charm of, say, Sammy Hagar, or the superhuman wail of, say, Brian Johnson. But his voice is perfectly suited for the DeLeo brothers' signature sound, at least more so than Chester Bennington's was. (Bennington's two-year stint fronting STP yielded a decent EP called High Rise, but his upper register was always an odd fit.) Gutt sounds, at the very least, remarkably comfortable. Time will tell if he can bring charisma to the stage.
And let’s be honest: Scott Weiland often didn't, in the last few years of his career. If you remember that unfortunate YouTube clip of him butchering Vaseline back in 2015, you can imagine how difficult he became as a bandmate. It’s easy to lionize Weiland as the gifted, dynamic musical icon. His stage presence by the late '90s was the stuff of legend, he could bring lightning in a bottle to the stage. But when he let his demons overpower his gifts, he left many other musicians in creative and professional flux.
Legacy is a tricky thing. Scott Weiland, on his best days, was irreplaceable. And some fans have been quick dismiss this band's future, but it's only natural that Robert DeLeo, Dean DeLeo and Eric Kretz continue making music under the name that they're known by. So while Jeff Gutt has some mighty shoes to fill, the new material proves that he might even be up to size. B
