Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop

Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop is the third studio album by the American rock band Stone Temple Pilots, released on March 26, 1996, through Atlantic Records. After a brief hiatus throughout 1995, the band regrouped to record the album together at Westerly Ranch in Santa Ynez, California, where they also lived at the time. The album has been certified 2× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The band promoted the album with a tour throughout 1996 and 1997, although it had to be cut short due to Scott Weiland's ongoing battles with substance abuse.

Background

The period leading up to the recording of Stone Temple Pilots' third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, was marked by serious internal challenges, largely stemming from the singer, Scott Weiland's struggles with substance abuse. Although the band had managed to complete Purple (1994), it had been a difficult process due to Weiland's addiction, which had already begun to disrupt the group's stability. By early 1995, the situation had worsened. During initial sessions for the album in February, the band was forced to discard two weeks' worth of recordings as Weiland's condition deteriorated. After being released on bond, Weiland sought out more drugs and eventually secluded himself at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles, where he reportedly spent time using drugs with Courtney Love.

During Weiland's absence, the remaining members of Stone Temple Pilots, the guitarist Dean DeLeo, the bassist Robert DeLeo, and the drummer Eric Kretz, began developing a new project. Believing the band had hit a low point, they decided to form Talk Show in the spring of 1995, recruiting the former Ten Inch Men singer Dave Coutts. While the members did not view Talk Show as a temporary side project, Stone Temple Pilots had not officially disbanded. At the same time, Weiland started his own group, the Magnificent Bastards, and contributed tracks to the Tank Girl (1995) soundtrack and the Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon (1995) compilation., while others say 20,000. Statements from the band have referred to it as both 20,000 Only twelve people, the band, O'Brien, crew members, engineers, and a cook were present. Robert DeLeo explained that recording in a house was something the band had long wanted to do. He cited albums such as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) by Elton John as examples of records made in residential settings. At the same time, he acknowledged that Westerly Ranch was booked for Tiny Music partly in the hope that it would help keep Weiland focused and on schedule, as maintaining attention in a traditional studio environment had become challenging.

The DeLeo brothers first sorted through their collection of roughly 30 songs they wrote during Weiland's absence, deciding which would suit Stone Temple Pilots and which would be used for Talk Show. As Dean DeLeo later recalled, "Robert and I had about 30 songs, and we sat in the room one night and basically went down the list and marked next to every song: Scott, Scott, Dave, Scott, Dave, Dave, Scott... It's really weird, because in all reality it was like 'Big Bang Baby' could've been on [the] Talk Show record and 'Everybody Loves My Car' could've been on Tiny Music." Kretz explained that while their debut studio album Core (1992) consisted largely of songs the band already had before bringing in producer Brendan O'Brien, Purple marked a shift toward greater studio experimentation after learning new techniques during their first collaboration with him. That experimentation, he said, "opened up the floodgates" for Tiny Music.

The band utilized each room for its own distinct acoustics. The tiled foyer, with its 20-foot ceilings, created a natural reverb effect that can be heard on "Lady Picture Show". Some of the percussion was tracked in a large bathroom to capture what Kretz described as "beautiful, natural reverbs and crazy sounds". Weiland opted for a higher, raspier tone for much of the album's material, as opposed to the deeper vocals present on Core and Purple. It also features a wider array of instrumentation, including organ, vibraphone, and trumpet. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stated in his review of the album that "Tiny Music illustrates that the band aren't content with resting on their laurels" and "STP have added a new array of sounds that lend depth to their immediately accessible hooks." Erlewine also wrote that the album "showcases the band at their most tuneful and creative." "Pop's Love Suicide" and "Tumble in the Rough" move with a "newfound speed and ease", though Sadie Sartini Garner of Pitchfork noted their "casual arrangements and flat melodies" give them a slight feel. According to Garner, the song incorporates a direct melodic nod to the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and namechecks David Bowie's Station to Station, framing it as a commentary on stardom. The line "Sell your soul and sign an autograph" precedes a shift into the refrain "Nothing's for free," a moment where the irony becomes clear. The cover model was Maya Siklai (formerly Goodman), a family friend of art director John Heiden.

Release

In the United States, the album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 albums chart on the issue dated April 13, 1996, with 162,500 copies sold. The album was certified double platinum, but was not as commercially successful as STP's first two albums.

Critical reception

Tiny Music elicited a range of critical responses upon release, with some acknowledging its stylistic shift but questioning its coherence and substance.

| rev2 = The A.V. Club

| rev2score = Positive

| rev3 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev3score =

| rev4 = Pitchfork

| rev4score = 7.4/10

| rev5 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev5score =

| subtitle = Retrospective reviews

Following Weiland's death, Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins posited, "It was STP's 3rd album that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I'd been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere. Lastly, I'd like to share a thought which though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I'd say it were he, Layne, and Kurt."

In 2016, The A.V. Club noted that Tiny Music "was an almost shocking leap forward in creative ambition" and that "[STP] got weirder and better than anyone gives them credit for."

Track listing

Note: "Press Play" has a length of 4:27 on LP reissues.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.

Stone Temple Pilots

Scott Weiland – lead vocals, percussion on "Press Play"
Dean DeLeo – guitar, bass on "Press Play" and "Big Bang Baby"
Robert DeLeo – bass, guitar on "Press Play", "And So I Know" and "Daisy"; vibraphone and electric harpsichord on "And So I Know"; percussion on "And So I Know"
Eric Kretz – drums, percussion on "Pop's Love Suicide", "Lady Picture Show", "And So I Know", and "Art School Girl"

Additional personnel

Brendan O'Brien – producer, mixing, piano on "Press Play" and "Big Bang Baby"; percussion on "Pop's Love Suicide", "Lady Picture Show", "Art School Girl" and "Seven Caged Tigers"; organ and clavinet on "Art School Girl"
Dave Ferguson – trumpet on "Adhesive"
Nick DiDia – recording engineer
Caram Costanzo – 2nd engineer
Chris Goss – vocal engineer
Tracy Chisholm – vocal engineer
Stephen Marcussen – mastering
Ron Boustead – digital editing
John Eder – photography
John Heiden – art direction

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

! scope="col"| Chart (1996)

! scope="col"| Peak position

! scope="row"| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)

| 18

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

! scope="col"| Chart (2021)

! scope="col"| Peak position

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

! scope="col"| Chart (1996)

! scope="col"| Position

!scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)

| 35

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 41

Singles

{| class="wikitable"

!Year

!Single

!style="width: 1em;"|Mainstream Rock Tracks

!style="width: 1em;"|Modern Rock Tracks

!style="width: 1em;"|CAN Alternative 30

|rowspan="4"|1996

|"Big Bang Baby"