Smashing Pumpkins

Ouch.... This is a review of the new Smashing Pumpkins album, via papermag.com


Smashing Pumpkins

Zeitgeist (Reprise Records) I can barely recall a memory from the '90s without a ballad from the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream or better still, their masterpiece Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, as part of its soundtrack. But if you're hoping to get back to the '90s with their latest record, Zeitgeist, try a different route. Billy Corgan is still at the helm as the band's songwriting frontman, but James Iha, D'arcy Wretzky and Melissa Auf der Maur are no longer in the band. The entire album feels like it's desperately trying to reclaim something that no longer exists, and it alone feels much heavier than the entire body of their previous. Corgan and original drummer Jimmy Chamberlain have turned what was once a melodious sound into a darker parody of itself. Songs like "Tarantula" are built around the worst '70s metal riffs, while "United States" attempts to come off more like a '60s jam with Corgan chanting, "Revolution," over a percussion-based, anthemic pulse. Sure, this could be an accurate description of Siamese Dream, but on Zeitgeist it's a mockery rather than an authentic alternative sound. It begs the question: "What's the point of this reunion?" Corgan claimed that he broke up the short-lived super group Zwan because his heart was still in the Smashing Pumpkins. If that's the case, he'd do well to give Mellon Collie another listen.

You know, I have a friend in Canada that once hung out with Billy C for a weekend, according to her and everyone else, he's one cocky dude. I loved "their" music though. Their meaning -- the original band.