Scott Weiland : Happy In Galoshes :: Review
Scott Weiland is back! Well, he’s returned to his solo recording career after Velvet Revolver imploded. On ‘Happy In Galoshes’ Scott Weiland mines the glam and hard rock sound of his previous solo album, ‘12 Bar Blues’ while incorporating poppier elements into the mix. Opener “Missing Cleveland” sounds like a mash up between T-Rex and David Bowie, while “Tangle With Your Mind” sounds like somebody got stuck listening to “Tangled Up in Blue” too many times. Speaking of Bowie, Scott Weiland even attempts a version of “Fame” featuring DJ Paul Oakenfold, which doesn’t hold a candle to the original.
Scott Weiland can’t shake the ghosts of his past bands on this album, no matter how he tries. Their sound is evident in a couple of tracks, “Blind Confusion” and “She Sold Her System.” On “Blind Confusion” the bluesy sprawl of Stone Temple Pilots is quite evident. “She Sold Her System” has a syncopated drum track, but the track could almost be a dead ringer from anything off the “4” record. I will give Weiland credit; he is perfectly capable of crafting a pop melody. It just seems that this record is too produced sounding, the drums on most of the tracks don’t sound natural and because of this, the record already sounds like something stuck in 1998.
Had Weiland stripped the songs down to their bare essentials, his cabaret shtick would be a lot more palatable. This album isn’t completely terrible; it’s just a bit overbearing. The production overtakes the songs, and the melodies become lost in a wash of studio trickery. I’m all for creating an album that is meant to be listened to with headphones, but this is overkill. Maybe these songs translate live. I’ll guess you’ll have to wait and see for that.
