best pumkpins review I've seen
mrwalkerb
Posts: 1,015
It's not something hilariously clever like the pitchfork review of Jet but an actual review that pretty much sums up my thoughts of the record:
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Way back before the Smashing Pumpkins were superstars, right around the release of Siamese Dream, it was already an open secret that they were not a democracy; they were a dictatorship, ruled under the iron fist of singer/songwriter/guitarist/conceptualist Billy Corgan. He came up with their sound, equal parts metal and dream pop, he wrote the songs, and, according to most reports, he recorded almost all the guitars and bass on their albums, masterminding their sound down to the littlest details. Anybody that meticulous was also sharp enough to know the value of image too, so Corgan knew it was better to present the Smashing Pumpkins as a full-fledged band, not a solo project, and he came up with a diverse lineup ideally matched for the alt-rock '90s: he was the skinny misfit leader, surrounded by female bassist D'Arcy, Japanese-American guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who came across like an old metalhead on the prowl for freaky chicks. They didn't look like a band; they looked like the idea of a band, which was appealing in its own right, but for as photogenic as they were, the reason the Pumpkins turned into stadium-conquering monsters was Corgan's outsized music, which was nothing if not deliberately, self-consciously dramatic. His commitment to grand gestures was cemented when he disbanded the Smashing Pumpkins at the turn of the millennium, about a year after former Hole bassist Melissa auf der Maur replaced D'Arcy and just as Iha was beginning to bolt. The group was beginning to fracture, but the retirement of the band's name seemed like confirmation that the Pumpkins were a concrete idea for Corgan, that they were a band that served a particular moment in time, and once that moment in time had passed, so had the band. The very fact that he pretty much was the Pumpkins lent this move integrity, since it was clear that Billy could keep the ball rolling, ushering new musicians in and out under the same moniker with nobody but the hardcore being any wiser, but instead of taking that easy road, he decided to make a clean break and pursue other projects.
As it turns out, the Smashing Pumpkins era did mark a phase in Corgan's career: the time that people paid attention to him. Without that name, Corgan started playing to an ever-more selective audience, first as the leader in the deceptively sunny Zwan and then on an icy, alienating 2005 solo album, The Future Embrace, where Corgan channeled his inner Martin Gore. Neither was a radical musical departure from the Pumpkins — even The Future Embrace had its roots in Adore — but that didn't matter, since taken together they had the cumulative effect of marginalizing Corgan, and if there was ever a place Billy didn't want to be it was on the margin. From the very beginning, he wanted to lead the biggest, most important band in the land, eventually getting his wish as he used the indie rock underground as a catapult to mainstream stardom, but once his star began to wane he panicked and played the one card he had left in his deck: getting the band back together. On the day The Future Embrace was released, he took out a full-page ad in his hometown paper the Chicago Tribune announcing that the Smashing Pumpkins were reuniting. The only hitch was, he didn't tell any of the other members of the impending reunion, but as it turns out, only Chamberlin — who was already drumming with Corgan — was interested in signing up, leaving the Smashing Pumpkins as a band in name only, a Billy Corgan project at its core. This was precisely the very thing he seemed to avoid when he retired the band at the turn of the millennium, and returning to his marquee name gave this reunion a sense of desperation, as if he had nowhere else to go, and the ensuing 2007 album Zeitgeist does nothing to erase the suspicion that Corgan is anxious to regain his status as rock & roll god. To this end, he makes Zeitgeist the hardest, heaviest Pumpkins album ever, layering the record with endless guitar overdubs that wind up feeling like overcompensation, not just for the synth-driven Future Embrace but as a blustering retort to any skeptic who questions the validity of this reunion. Of course, bombast has always been par for the course for Corgan and the Pumpkins, but at their peak they truly did achieve sense of majesty, either in their dreamy, softer psychedelic side or their towering torrents of metallic guitar. Here Corgan has blunted his attack, removing any sense of beauty either in the ballads (which invariably are icy, stilted synth sculptures, not the quivering, gentle pop of "1979" or the strings and acoustic guitars of "Disarm") or the rockers, which was a key to the Pumpkins' appeal. What made "Cherub Rock" or "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" work is how the sighing melody acted as a counterpoint to the ferocious guitars, but on Zeitgeist he repeatedly buries his threadbare melodies beneath squeals of guitar that are too processed to either soar or sear. More than anything, it's this digitally dulled sound that saps Zeitgeist from any impact it may have, but it's also true that there's import to the title: for the first time, Corgan is trying to address the wrongs of society, which is a big change for a writer who has spent his career turning the intimate into the operatic, and it doesn't quite work. It's a long way from complaining that the world is a vampire to detailing how it sucks your blood away, and this blatant attempt at capturing the mood of the era — evident in the very titles of "Doomsday Clock," "United States," and "For God and Country" — backfires, only emphasizing the desperateness behind Corgan's music here. At his peak, he never seemed to strive for relevance — sure, he strived to make art, but his music never seemed weighed down with being part of the, well, zeitgeist; it just came naturally to him. As the title of this purported reunion makes all too plain, Corgan is now all too consumed with being relevant, with being part of the discussion, with being part of the zeitgeist, and never has he has seemed less relevant or interesting than he does here.
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Way back before the Smashing Pumpkins were superstars, right around the release of Siamese Dream, it was already an open secret that they were not a democracy; they were a dictatorship, ruled under the iron fist of singer/songwriter/guitarist/conceptualist Billy Corgan. He came up with their sound, equal parts metal and dream pop, he wrote the songs, and, according to most reports, he recorded almost all the guitars and bass on their albums, masterminding their sound down to the littlest details. Anybody that meticulous was also sharp enough to know the value of image too, so Corgan knew it was better to present the Smashing Pumpkins as a full-fledged band, not a solo project, and he came up with a diverse lineup ideally matched for the alt-rock '90s: he was the skinny misfit leader, surrounded by female bassist D'Arcy, Japanese-American guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who came across like an old metalhead on the prowl for freaky chicks. They didn't look like a band; they looked like the idea of a band, which was appealing in its own right, but for as photogenic as they were, the reason the Pumpkins turned into stadium-conquering monsters was Corgan's outsized music, which was nothing if not deliberately, self-consciously dramatic. His commitment to grand gestures was cemented when he disbanded the Smashing Pumpkins at the turn of the millennium, about a year after former Hole bassist Melissa auf der Maur replaced D'Arcy and just as Iha was beginning to bolt. The group was beginning to fracture, but the retirement of the band's name seemed like confirmation that the Pumpkins were a concrete idea for Corgan, that they were a band that served a particular moment in time, and once that moment in time had passed, so had the band. The very fact that he pretty much was the Pumpkins lent this move integrity, since it was clear that Billy could keep the ball rolling, ushering new musicians in and out under the same moniker with nobody but the hardcore being any wiser, but instead of taking that easy road, he decided to make a clean break and pursue other projects.
As it turns out, the Smashing Pumpkins era did mark a phase in Corgan's career: the time that people paid attention to him. Without that name, Corgan started playing to an ever-more selective audience, first as the leader in the deceptively sunny Zwan and then on an icy, alienating 2005 solo album, The Future Embrace, where Corgan channeled his inner Martin Gore. Neither was a radical musical departure from the Pumpkins — even The Future Embrace had its roots in Adore — but that didn't matter, since taken together they had the cumulative effect of marginalizing Corgan, and if there was ever a place Billy didn't want to be it was on the margin. From the very beginning, he wanted to lead the biggest, most important band in the land, eventually getting his wish as he used the indie rock underground as a catapult to mainstream stardom, but once his star began to wane he panicked and played the one card he had left in his deck: getting the band back together. On the day The Future Embrace was released, he took out a full-page ad in his hometown paper the Chicago Tribune announcing that the Smashing Pumpkins were reuniting. The only hitch was, he didn't tell any of the other members of the impending reunion, but as it turns out, only Chamberlin — who was already drumming with Corgan — was interested in signing up, leaving the Smashing Pumpkins as a band in name only, a Billy Corgan project at its core. This was precisely the very thing he seemed to avoid when he retired the band at the turn of the millennium, and returning to his marquee name gave this reunion a sense of desperation, as if he had nowhere else to go, and the ensuing 2007 album Zeitgeist does nothing to erase the suspicion that Corgan is anxious to regain his status as rock & roll god. To this end, he makes Zeitgeist the hardest, heaviest Pumpkins album ever, layering the record with endless guitar overdubs that wind up feeling like overcompensation, not just for the synth-driven Future Embrace but as a blustering retort to any skeptic who questions the validity of this reunion. Of course, bombast has always been par for the course for Corgan and the Pumpkins, but at their peak they truly did achieve sense of majesty, either in their dreamy, softer psychedelic side or their towering torrents of metallic guitar. Here Corgan has blunted his attack, removing any sense of beauty either in the ballads (which invariably are icy, stilted synth sculptures, not the quivering, gentle pop of "1979" or the strings and acoustic guitars of "Disarm") or the rockers, which was a key to the Pumpkins' appeal. What made "Cherub Rock" or "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" work is how the sighing melody acted as a counterpoint to the ferocious guitars, but on Zeitgeist he repeatedly buries his threadbare melodies beneath squeals of guitar that are too processed to either soar or sear. More than anything, it's this digitally dulled sound that saps Zeitgeist from any impact it may have, but it's also true that there's import to the title: for the first time, Corgan is trying to address the wrongs of society, which is a big change for a writer who has spent his career turning the intimate into the operatic, and it doesn't quite work. It's a long way from complaining that the world is a vampire to detailing how it sucks your blood away, and this blatant attempt at capturing the mood of the era — evident in the very titles of "Doomsday Clock," "United States," and "For God and Country" — backfires, only emphasizing the desperateness behind Corgan's music here. At his peak, he never seemed to strive for relevance — sure, he strived to make art, but his music never seemed weighed down with being part of the, well, zeitgeist; it just came naturally to him. As the title of this purported reunion makes all too plain, Corgan is now all too consumed with being relevant, with being part of the discussion, with being part of the zeitgeist, and never has he has seemed less relevant or interesting than he does here.
"I'm not suicidal, except when I drink. That's why we don't all drink at the same time, there'd be no-one alive to drive home..."
Chris Cornell
http://www.myspace.com/mrwalkerb
Chris Cornell
http://www.myspace.com/mrwalkerb
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he doesnt realy review zeitgeist...so...go fuck yourself
what? how isn't this correct?
Chris Cornell
http://www.myspace.com/mrwalkerb
about the record...and not 9/10 of the text he talks about the past...
and 1/10 about the track names???
He does that's what the second half of the review is. And the point isn't whether or not it's a good record (which he clearly says it's not) it's that the very existence of the record is redundant (which it totally is) and that's why he spends so much time discussing the conditions surrounding the band and the whole reuniting thing. Look man I love Jane's Addiction but Strays is a worthless piece of shit that the band created as a cash grab, this is looking remarkably similar
Chris Cornell
http://www.myspace.com/mrwalkerb
This is the last time I will play all these songs for the rest of my life," Corgan said emphatically. "I don't want to play these songs with other people. I don't want to rely on the past to pave the future."
right stand up guy he is now isn't he? this whole fiasco almost makes me take another look at the actual pumpkins records with a more critical eye.
Chris Cornell
http://www.myspace.com/mrwalkerb
well my freind ...go fuck yourself
However, it doesn't change the fact that the music itself isn't being reviewed really, just the circumstances around the music...
Really who gives a fuck that Billy Corgan wants to play all the songs he wrote again?
James Iha and D'arcy aren't there... oh well... it's there loss IMO... Billy wrote pretty much everything anyway... and if he wants to get others to play instruments well then who gives a shit? People are still going to listen to his music...
I think Billy (and a lot of other celebs) get portrayed by the media (this guy who wrote this "review" included) very badly... I'm sure Corgan is hard to work with but you never know the whole story because you're not really there.
I think it's unfair to read this review as a review of the album and not a biased view of how Billy pulled up the old band name and made a new record... how about some reviews of the actual music?
K thats all.
/rantoff
calm the fuck down son
oki doki
I do think he spent way to much time talking about the bands other albums and their formation over the years and not talking about why he gave the album 2 stars.
I personally would give the album 3 stars... maybe 3.5 I like it. I don't think it is incrediable. My biggest beef is with the vocals either being reorded poorly or just not sounding emotional. Some of the songs have nice riffs but were recorded in a way they just don't deliver. The drumming is superb. Some very good tracks though.
Charlotte 03
Asheville 04
Atlanta 12
Greenville 16, Columbia 16
Seattle 18
Nashville 22
I listened to the album myself, and I like it. Simple.
PJ albums, at the moment!! -
1,Vs 2,Vitalogy 3,No Code 4,Yield 5,Ten 6,Backspacer, 7Pearl Jam 8,Binaural 9,Riot Act.
Goddamnit people take him too seriously.. here's my review:
Yeah he's playing under "Smashing Pumpkins" again. So what? It's a heavy album that's better than anything he's done since Machina. A little dry but still a good album. 3/5.
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
To understand the crushing appeal of The Smashing Pumpkins circa the early- to mid-’90s doesn’t take much investigation. You don’t have to see a concert DVD or watch a music video; all you have to do is play “Cherub Rock” in your living room cranked up to ludicrous volumes. The smooth, luscious bass, edges-sanded-off guitar, and locked-in drum rhythms are so perfectly packaged; back then, it was nearly impossible not to jump onboard when Siamese Dream followed Gish with 13 thunderous tracks that – despite their throbbing lifeforce – wouldn’t be completely out of place nestled into MTV playlists. The production got us listening and masked Billy Corgan’s average-at-best voice, while the songs – half-ballad, half-balls yin-yangers like “Soma” and “Today,” more jammy numbers like “Silverfuck” – demolished what little resistance we may have had. It didn’t hurt that Siamese Dream was expertly sequenced and admirably consistent from front-to-back, top-to-bottom; in its entirety, it eclipsed all commercially viable albums save Nevermind and Superunknown, depending on your tolerance for Corgan’s antics and, again, his then-production-veiled voice. And yes, it sold sorta well.
After the one-two punch of Gish and Siamese Dream, it seemed there was nowhere to go but down; double album Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, while deemed bloated-etc.-etc. by nitpicking critics, somehow managed to up the Pumpkins’ stake in rock ’n’ roll, because it combined the fierce sack-of-nickels thrust of older work with a new symphonic sensibility that hit more than it missed. Its second disc also blueprinted the sound of a million different tinker-happy indie-rock ensembles; once you got past a few hard rockers, you found a half-dozen odd, twinkling, percussion-light numbers that flipped the Pumpkins’ mystique on its ear and pointed to an exciting future.
Then the goddamn roof caved in. Follow-up Adore took the mellow-rock hell that was “1979” and stretched it out over an album of drum machines – drummer Jimmy Chamberlin had been axed at this point – lighter, almost new-age material, and, worst of all, a mix that urged Corgan’s voice to the front. From there, the Pumpkins couldn’t seem to get arrested in This Town. They released two Machina albums, and I’ll be a monkey’s studio technician if I can remember what either of them sound like, save that Corgan’s voice is mixed too high. And that they were both colossally inadequate considering the effortless zeal of Glory Days material.
In another era, that might have been the end, at least for a decade or two. But as the reunion monster churns and thrashes, no break-up is safe; this trend finds us looking at a new Smashing Pumpkins album square in the face, quite possibly before we’re ready for it. And let’s get this out of the way immediately: The fact that James Iha and D’Arcy don’t participate in the Nu Pumpkins isn’t a death knell. Although Iha made vital songwriting contributions to Siamese Dream and D’Arcy sang on a Gish track, they were dispensable; hell, they didn’t even play their parts on Siamese Dream (under the guise of being pinched for time, Corgan played all guitar and bass). So if you’re going to deride the Pumpkins reunion, don’t do it because it comes sans a few members; the core of Chamberlin and Corgan is intact and, with the right material/mindset, could have put together a facking bad-ass album.
If you’re going to rip on Zeitgeist, do it because it’s not very good. As has been proven in the Rock medium time and time again, money can’t buy class. It also can’t buy awareness. Taking an objective look at Corgan’s past successes and failures, it’s easy to see what has instigated his downfall: For one, his voice; for two, his lack of inspiration. Zeitgeist seems to have more inspiration behind it than the bloodless Adore/Machina abominations, but that voice... In the Siamese Dream days, it used to lie just beyond our grasp, elusive and brittle and beautiful; you could even hear a little Kevin Shields in the way Corgan’s voice melted into the fuzz. Ever since then, it’s slowly crept to the forefront, to the point where it now seems as though Corgan’s right next to me as I write this. I can’t lock horns with the guitar leads and increasingly rare tom-fills because Corgan’s too busy yammering in my ear. Worst of all, I don’t care a wit what he has to say. You won’t either.
And the mixing problems extend far beyond Corgan’s voice. The Band of a Hundred Murderous Guitars has turned into a modern-radio-rock band. The once fill-a-minute drumming of Chamberlin is uninspired where it used to be wildly imaginative. The lunging charge of classic Pumpkins is now a plodding mid-tempo stroll. There are, inevitably, several new (and expensive!) elements attempting to usher in a new era for the band – synths up the yazoo, you know the routine – but underneath the new tricks hides the same ol’ Corgan, corrugating his music, which once meant so much to so many, like one might crinkle one’s brow.
It doesn’t help that one of the music world’s most famously famous fame-seekers tries to put one over on his audience (I want to live where no one’s watching my way home). Corgan has also decided he cares about World Affairs now, and whether it’s calculated or not doesn’t matter; it doesn’t work. It would be easy to cut and paste a litany of quotes from songs like “For God and Country” – which comes complete with hilarious Tears For Fears synth stabs – and “United States,” letting the reader laugh at the pseudo-political inanity, but it’s almost too easy; since most didn’t tune in for Corgan’s lyrics in the first place, there’s no reason to go down that road. Oh hell, just one, from the former: It’s time to wake up.
Such a tragedy; Zeitgeist, unlike, say, a new Pixies, Police, NY Dolls, Stooges, or Jesus and Mary Chain album, actually had the chance to rekindle old glories. The Pumpkins faithful aren’t really that old, nor is Corgan too far gone – thin ice, but stay with me here – to contribute something worthwhile to the music community. But Zeitgeist is more calculated, by-the-numbers, and devoid of human feeling than a summer-movie marketing plan. Whether it results in a blockbuster is beside the point; it does nothing to prevent commercial music from inching closer and closer to complete triviality, possibly even providing an extra push. For a band that – whether unwittingly, whether for the right or wrong reasons – assisted in the upheaval of popular culture not so long ago, Zeitgeist represents an artistic flame flickering. There are indications within Zeitgeist that Corgan’s Smashing Pumpkins may one day create another serviceable album, but for all intents and purposes, it also proves that excitedly anticipating anything remotely resembling the Glory Days was at best a fool’s hope.
1. Doomsday Clock
2. 7 Shades of Black
3. Bleeding the Orchid
4. That’s the Way (My Love Is)
5. Tarantula
6. Starz
7. United States
8. Neverlost
9. Bring the Light
10. (Come On) Let’s Go!
11. For God and Country
12. Pomp and Circumstances
from: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/The-Smashing-Pumpkins
I stopped reading there. I hate it when people bash Adore and Machina. Those are fantastic records. Consider Machina I and II a double album and it's better than MCIS to me. And that's fuckin' saying something.
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
Yeah, I'm going to disagree with you there. Rivals? No way.
The album is terrible, I just heard it today...very dissapointing. I was excited about new material from Corgan too.
::thumbs down::
Adore is a given, I can't figure out why so many people have a problem with it.
edit: The reason MCIS is a 'classic' and Machina is not is partly due to the way it appeals to people on so many levels. Machina is a pretty reclused album so to speak.
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
There is nothing to "get" about Machina. It's just not as good as their old shit. I hate when people say there is something to "get" about an album. When I put on an album, I listen. It either hits me or it doesn't. I shouldn't have to fucking study a rock album to understand it, especially when most of the songs are bland as hell. I like Everlasting Gaze, Crying Tree Of Mercury, Eye Of The Radio, This Time, and SIYL. The rest is pretty lame and don't stack up anywhere close to say Thru The Eyes Of Ruby, XYU, Love, Here Is No Why, etc. etc. If I have to somehow "get" an album, then in my eyes, it already blows.
Some people just aren't going to like it (that's you.)
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
See These Bones
LOVE LOVE LOVE THAT STATEMENT...F ALL THE TRENDS..listen to what you like.
But Zeitgeist is more calculated, by-the-numbers, and devoid of human feeling than a summer-movie marketing plan. Whether it results in a blockbuster is beside the point; it does nothing to prevent commercial music from inching closer and closer to complete triviality, possibly even providing an extra push. For a band that – whether unwittingly, whether for the right or wrong reasons – assisted in the upheaval of popular culture not so long ago, Zeitgeist represents an artistic flame flickering
It just upsets me when people can't accept everything they like isn't fucking brilliant. Ever since I realized that I can like a band, shit even love a band and still not dig some of their stuff or even outright dislike records or eras (I'm looking at you R.E.M. like Reveal are you kidding? after the brilliance of Up and followed by Around the Sun you give me this?) I have been able to appreciate music I do like way more.
Chris Cornell
http://www.myspace.com/mrwalkerb
The deal with Zeigeist is this now that the initial impression has worn off and it has to stand on its own. Its an okay album with a few good songs. The standouts are United States ( or xyu 2) Bleeding the Orchid, and Pomp and Circumstances. There are some other good songs in there that aren't very strong lyrically. There is also some just plain old crap. There will never be another Siamese Dream but on the bright side there might not be another Machina or Zwan either. Going from bottom feeders to somewhere in the middle was a pretty big step.