Featured Album: Smashing Pumpkins Zeitgeist
I can't remember being more excited for a 90's band to put out a new record than I was for the Pumpkins to release Zeitgeist. When I got my hands on it a few days ago, I was pleased to hear more Siamese Dream likeness than Machina: The Machines of God, but still, you couldn't help feeling like something was just...missing. To give credit where credit is due, the album really does rock pretty hard for the first 10 or so songs, but when you've put out such classic albums as Gish and Siamese Dream it is going to be hard to live up to fans' expectations.
Pitchfork recently reviewed the album and gave it a 4.9 (ouch). Here's a bit of what they said:
There are many reasons-- cynical, sad, or artistic-- for Billy Corgan to pull the Smashing Pumpkins moniker out of the crawlspace. Corgan has hardly been in hiding since the Pumpkins were dissolved in 2000, making music first with short-lived supergroup Zwan and then under his own name for 2005's TheFutureEmbrace. That latter record's commercial fizzle was abetted by Corgan's newspaper-ad announcement-- on the very day of TheFutureEmbrace's release-- that he was getting the band back together. Of course, the only actual reunion taking place was between Corgan and his most famous brand; drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was already involved in both post-Pumpkins projects, and James Iha/D'Arcy preferred to stay in hiding.
Thus, one couldn't help but feel that the Smashing Pumpkins revival wasn't little more than a calculated move for cash or attention or both. And, unsurprisingly, the strategy worked-- nobody could claim that Zeitgeist or the corresponding tour would have attracted nearly as much attention if the words "Billy Corgan" were at the top of that awful cover art instead of Smashing Pumpkins. But, it's possible, just maybe, that Corgan had artistic reasons for the switchback, genuinely wanting to reclaim the muse that led to his most artistically and commercially successful work, and add to the legacy of his most famous project. Hey, stranger things have happened.
Zeitgeist's replication of that old SP sound is impressive, despite the lack of half the original lineup...it's not like Corgan ever let D'Arcy or Iha do anything in the studio anyway. For a band that was stadium-size right out of the box, it's a return to the band's trademark overdriven and overblown M.O., inflated even further by a few tracks with legendary Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker. Corgan's guitar tone remains utterly unique, folding umpteen overdubs into the razor-sharp solos and grinding chords that are recognizable as his from the first note of "Doomsday Clock". Chamberlin, meanwhile, bashes with the same enthusiasm of his much younger self, helped by production that isn't afraid to push the drums front and center...(continue reading).
In case you were wondering, Rolling Stone was more kind in their review.
Smashing Pumpkins - "Doomsday Clock"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Starz"
Find more tracks from The Smashing Pumpkins for download at The Hype Machine.