CD reviews: Stone Temple Pilots, Jack Johnson

Stone Temple Pilots, "Stone Temple Pilots" (Atlantic)

Radio-ready riff-rockers Stone Temple Pilots have busted up and reunited more often than Jude Law and Sienna Miller. The quartet emerged during the grunge era with their 1992 insta-smash "Core" and reached a peak in 1994 with "Purple." They haven't recorded an album that focused, forceful and contagiously melodic since then. Until now.

Cryptic lyricist and crooner Scott Weiland is reportedly writing his autobiography. That must have jogged creative forces immune to his legendary long-term drug addiction. His Bowie-like cackle ruminates languidly over broken wedding vows on "Between the Lines" and "Cinnamon." He makes the best and bleakest of a cracked character study in "Bagman." The swamp-dog sensuality Weiland instills into the Southern Gothic "Hickory Dichotomy" makes it perfect for some vampire vehicle or another.

But the true showcase of STP, from the space-cowboy pop of "First Kiss on Mars" to the glam stutter-'n'-crunch of "Huckleberry Crumble" and the neo-speed twang of "Fast as I Can," is the diversity and craft of the DeLeo brothers as songwriters, arrangers and players. The tuneful ring and groove of Brit-pop's best inform all of Dean's and Robert's melodies (written together or alone). But it's the kick of "Hazy Daze" that defines STP forevermore -- a hook-filled stunner with Weiland in a dark and lonely place.

A.D. AMOROSI, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Jack Johnson, "To the Sea" (Brushfire)

Johnson has quietly become one of the biggest pop stars in America. And when we say quietly, we mean it.

And Johnson is nothing if not casual. Like his other records, this effort sounds like a shoes-optional outing best enjoyed in a hammock or on a beach. It's no cliché: Johnson and his intimate connection to the water is a very real relationship. His love of stilted rhythms and pointed pauses mirrors the tide's in-and-out flow. That said, this record won't likely turn Johnson's critics around, as it's alarmingly similar to his previous releases.

Johnson performs July 25 in Somerset, Wis.