The Smashing Pumpkins – Aghori Mhori Mei – Album Review

 Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

Smashing Pumpkins – Shiny And Oh So Bright Vol. 1 / LP – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2018/11/20/smashing-pumpkins-shiny-and-oh-so-bright-vol-1-lp-album-review/

William Patrick Corgan – Ogilala – Album Review

Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com 

https://nomoreworkhorse.com/2017/10/18/william-patrick-corgan-ogilala-album-review/

Album Review: Smashing Pumpkins - Machina/The Machines of God

Smashing Pumpkins fifth album was released in 2000 at a time when the world had grown rather tired of Billy Corgan and co.  With drummer Jimmy Chamberlin back in the fold the sound is heavier than their previous album Adore, with the clattering riffs of opener The Everlasting Gaze setting the tone.  Like many of their albums it's long, fifteen tracks over 73 minutes.

It's something of a mixed bag, not a return to their heavy early nineties sound, nor a continuation of the poppy feel of Adore.  This album attempts to marry the two and doesn't quite pull it off.  The powerful, hard-riffing Heavy Metal Machine and The Imploding Voice come across as more overblown bluster than anything else, as if the band decided 'hey, we can still do heavy'.  Elsewhere Raindrops + Sunshowers would be far better if the track was allowed to just breathe, the busy production is a little too much.  Tracks like Stand Inside Your Love, Try, Try, Try, and I of the Mourning are reasonably memorable, though the latter's endless refrain of "radio, radio, radio plays my favourite song" grates after a while.

There is a lot here to get your head around.  The Sacred and Profane works as it feels like the band isn't trying too hard, it's one of the stronger melodies here, as is This Time, which has a lovely descending jangly guitar part.  On the other hand the overlong The Glass and Ghost Children does nobody any favours, meandering for nearly ten very long minutes.

But it's all just a little too much, and without any really great songs it's not quite a keeper.

The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore

The Smashing Pumpkins fourth album Adore, released in 1998 is downright weird.  As well as the departure of drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, gone are the guitars that graced their previous three albums, replaced by acoustic folk and synth pop.  To Sheila, which opens the album features prettily picked acoustic guitar, and its a fine opener.  It's followed up br the synth-grind of Ava Adore, which is probably the closest thing to their previous work, featuring (some) electric guitar.  But Perfect which follows is pretty much a mixture of New Order and the Lightning Seeds, and it doesn't really suit Billy Corgan and co.  In fact there are a few tracks (Daphne Descends, Appels + Oranjes and) which are in this vein, and none of them are terrible, but it's not what you want from a 'grunge' band is it?

The album works better on the slow strummy folk like Once Upon A Time, Crestfallen and The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete) which are quality pop songs.  Not like anything Smashing Pumpkins produced before, but not bad.  Tear, which when played live featured a searing guitar line, is neutered here, the guitars buried in studio effects.  Shame.  The awfully-titled Pug is better, almost like Gary Numan thanks to huge banks of oppressive synths.  Towards the end, the eight minute For Martha displays some of the epic nature of previous albums.  Beginning as a piano ballad, it builds to a swirling guitar anthem and is one of the better tracks, but otherwise there are few real standout songs here.  The album is overlong at 16 tracks and 73 minutes, surely cutting it down to 10 tracks would have been better idea as the final three or four tracks (except For Martha) are not the most engaging.  A brave attempt to broaden their sound, it doesn't quite succeed however.

Album Review: Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot

Sometimes it's easy to forget how incredibly on their game The Smashing Pumpkins were in the early nineties.  This collection of B-sides, released in 1994 came in the wake of the still stunning Siamese Dream and just before they pushed things a little too far on the overblown Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.  As these things generally are, it's a mixed bag.

Opening with the gentle whisper of the aptly titled Soothe, the rocky Frail and Bedazzled follows and like some of the other material (Pissant, Hello Kitty Kat) it's unremarkable.  Things improve on the sludgy Plume which plods pleasingly along.  The tracks which follows, Whir and Blew Away are wonderfully airy tracks with a lightness of touch not generally associated with Billy Corgan and co, the latter almost like a slab of seventies soft rock.

On the other hand, eleven minutes of riffing on Starla is just way, way too much.  When the Smashing Pumpkins rein it in however, they deliver tracks that are up there with their best, returning to introspection on the dreamy strum of Obscured and a downright vulnerable version of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide.  Well worth investigating.

Album Review: The Smashing Pumpkins | Monuments To An Elegy

Review for www.meg.ie

http://www.meg.ie/album-review-the-smashing-pumpkins-monuments-to-an-elegy/

Album Review: Smashing Pumpkins - Gish

Smashing Pumpkins' debut, released in 1991, opens with I Am The One, which is a kind of generic early 90s indie track.  That's not a criticism but apart from Billy Corgan's vocals it could be Lir or Jane's Addiction.  Siva on the other hand is an epic piece of work with driving guitars, a pounding beat and a classic yet modern feel to it.

What follows, however is even better.  The strangely mispelt Rhinoceros is a slow, loping track which builds up gradually, adding guitars.  Corgan totally owns this song with a perfectly pitched vocal.  It's an absolutely monstrous song with towering guitar from Corgan and James Iha.

Bury Me is a strong, heavy rocker while Crush and Snail are early attempts at those slow Smashing Pumpkins anthems they perfected with the likes of Disarm and Soma on Siamese Dream.  Later on, Suffer is a gloriously downbeat slice of, dare I say it, grunge with Tristessa acting as its faster counterpoint.  Final track Daydream sees bassist D'Arcy Wretzky take the vocals on a downbeat shoegazey tune with a hidden track tacked on that the end (I'm Going Crazy) for good measure.

But the high quality of this debut was a clear indication Smashing Pumpkins had arrived fully formed.

Album Review: Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

Smashing Pumpkins were the least-punk influenced and therefore the proggiest band of the grunge era.  Their second album, Siamese Dream, released in 1993 was a huge leap forward from previous album Gish, where only Rhinocerous hinted at the sheer power of this album.

 

It sounds absolutely immense, brilliantly produced by frontman/control freak Billy Corgan and Butch Vig.  The guitars and Jimmy Chamberlain's drums sound immense on opener Cherub Rock, bursting out of the speakers.  Quiet continues in this vein with a bludgeoning, powerful riff.  It has to be said that Corgan's voice hasn't aged well, it has a rather grating tendency across the album.  But he is forgiven when his and James Iha's guitars are so good.

 

The intricate, picked guitar intro to the anthemic Today still thrills, while Hummer is an absolute lesson in band dynamics and pacing on a song, as guitars ebb and flow from gentle, blissed-out ripples to molten riffing, and back again.  The lyrics, however, are ridiculous: "life's a bummer, when you're a hummer".  Indeed.

 

The massive riffs of Rocket could almost be the Screaming Trees if Corgan's voice dropped an octave or seven, and this gives way to the tense strum-with-bells on of Disarm, another early 90s anthem which hasn't aged badly at all.  Once again it's brilliantly recorded, adding touches of strings here and there.

 

The faraway guitars of Soma signal another epic, beginning quietly, building gradually till the slabs of heavy, air-punching guitars crash through the song, spitting fire every which way, managing to overcome some fairly rotten lyrics: "I'm all by myself, as I've always felt".  We return to an uneasy peace at the end of the song before following track Geek USA barrels in, only letting up briefly midsong before Corgan's guitars pick up the pace again, becoming almost Black Sabbath in places.

 

The intensity lessens a little towards the end of the album.  But only a little.  Mayonaise is a fine midtempo rocker, while Spaceboy has a kind of classic rock ballad feel to it.  The only misstep is the longest track, the almost NINE minutes of pounding drums and guitars of  Silverfuck.  There's only so many times I can listen to Billy Corgan whine "bang bang you're dead".  The album ends with the blissed out Sweet Sweet and Luna, two relatively low key tracks. 

 

It's pretty much a seventies rock album updated for the early nineties.  But it still sounds superb, great melodies with towering guitars.  Dust it down and blow the cobwebs away.