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. Like all of the band’s albums up to that point, production was handled by Brendan O’Brien. The album saw the band deviate from the grunge sound present on their first two records and incorporate a wider variety of different influences, including psychedelic rock and glam rock. Lead vocalist Scott Weiland opted for a higher and raspier tone for much of the album’s material, as opposed to the deeper vocals present on their previous albums. The album also features a wider array of instrumentation, including organ, vibraphone, and trumpet. Tiny Music… initially received mixed reviews, similar to the band’s earlier work, but has since received acclaim for radically reinventing the band’s sound and image. The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and all three of its singles—“Big Bang Baby”, “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart”, and “Lady Picture Show”—reached the top of the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. 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 Weiland’s ongoing battles with substance abuse.

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