Album of the Day

Stone Temple Pilots hit some turbulence after the release of Purple, but Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop showed the quartet still had great records in them. Brendan O'Brien returned to produce STP’s third Atlantic long-player, but did so in Santa Ynez, California, in a rented house where the group also lived. With sessions done in different places on the property, the setting encouraged creativity and the 1996 collection broadens the band’s sound to include psychedelic, glam and shoegaze textures. The melodies and hooks are as strong as ever here; singles “Big Bang Baby,” “Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart” and “Lady Picture Show” all topped Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart. The set as a whole reached No.4 on the magazine’s album chart, and Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop was soon certified double-Platinum.