Scott Weiland
Note to David Bowie: Watch your back catalog! Last time Weiland of lithe Stone Temple Pilots ripped off a proven sound (grunge), his band gained as much fame as its originators (Nirvana and Pearl Jam). Now, out on his own after a much-publicized drug detox, he eschews heavy guitar rock for a lighter but equally familiar pop psychedelia. Clearly he has gotten his mitts on Bowie's 1972 glam classic The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
But with its predictably spaced-out song titles ("Desperation #5"), cloyingly nonsensical lyrics ("All the tangerines/ They taste like jelly beans") and thin, whiny vocals, 12 Bar Blues shouldn't prove any threat to a living legend. No surprise, then, that on the album's best shot at a hit, the vaude-villian acid rocker "Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down" (which also appeared on the Great Expectations soundtrack), he blatantly cribs from a dead one—Jim Morrison. Weiland, do us all a favor: Stop cloning around. (Atlantic)
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