A blessing to most of us, Creed announced that they’ve split up. The only strange part, as reported by The Rolling Stone, is that singer Scott Stapp’s future plans include working with Canadian arena rockers The Tea Party on a full-length album. As an unabashed fan of The Tea Party (despite their last poor effort), I can’t help but ask the unanswerable:

Does this mean that Stapp is getting cooler or that The Tea Party are getting lamer? Please, don’t answer that.

With the sneaking suspicion that TTP’s best work may well be behind them, I want to take this opportunity to shamelessly suggest, for those of you who haven’t heard any of their work, 1997’s Transmission and 1999’s Triptych. For a three-piece, these guys produce a really intricate sound that rewards repeat listens. To oversimplify the nature of their sound, they are like an updated Led Zeppelin, sung by Jim Morrison, replete with exotic eastern instruments (they’ll actually find some of these obscurities in Indian flee markets, have them repaired, teach themselves to play them, and feature them prominently on their records). I mean—really—what other band is doing this stuff?

If downloading is your thing, try these songs:

“Walking Wounded”
“Sister Awake”
“Fire in the Head”
“The Halycon Days”
“Samsara”
“Correspondences”

But if your mainstream fuse is especially short, and you can indulge but one, try the egregiously underrated ballad “Gone”. It’ll get your girl’s panties off in a hurry and in the end, isn’t that the truest musical litmus test?