The rest of VelvetRevolver endured being in a band with him for less time than they put up with Axl Rose, “tensions” stymied the Stone Temple Pilots reunion after just one album and he was barely in new US rock supergroup Art Of Anarchy for ten minutes before distancing himself from the project.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Scott Weiland was a thorny character, so his fifth solo album – his first collection of original material since 2008’s “Happy” In Galoshes – acts as premium PR.
From the synthetic blues buzz of opener Modzilla, essentially The White Stripes’ The Hardest Button To Button in snakeskin, melodic exuberance abounds. Channelling T.Rex, Weezer, ELO, The Who and Ziggy, Weiland never sounded so alive and aligned with history’s pop greats as when swinging and woo-hooing through Way She Moves, or living out all his collegiate keg-party, indie-rock fantasies on Blue Eyes and Beach Pop.
Only the plodding White Lightning and an unadventurous 20th Century Boy drag, but they’re easily outweighed by the new-wave buzz of Youth Quake and Parachute’s godlike glam-Beatles chorus.
All girls, cars, rock shows and alligators, Blaster makes Weiland sound almost, well, huggable./o:p
