Music of the Moment: The Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
I don’t have a good transition from Petty to the Pumpkins, but Garbage did open for the Pumpkins on the Mellon Collie tour and Butch Vig produced Siamese Dream. At least I have that going for me.
Zeitgeist seems to be a quintessential Smashing Pumpkins record. There are moments of frustrating self-indulgence and moments of sheer brilliance, all brought to you by the only man whose opinion ever mattered. When Corgan finds something that works, it is glorious to hear. It would be great if his ego and controlling tendencies would allow someone else to contribute three or four ideas a record. Corgan usually comes up with 2/3 of a great record, filling that last third with filler and/or turds.
I thought about listening to this one yesterday, but stayed pretty immersed in Garbage. This morning, I had to listen to it and I’m glad I did. I wonder if the people who panned the album are actually panning the music on the CD. It seems to me — and I didn’t read every review — most of the venom was directed at what the album wasn’t, paying very little attention to the 12 songs on the record. There is some terrific music on Zeitgeist, waiting to be discovered. You may have to shelve your own preconceived notions and expectations to find it, but great music is worth that effort. Billy Corgan at his least interesting is still pretty good, and Zeitgeist hardly sounds like a man scraping the bottle of his barrel.
Filed under: Tags: Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins
I agree wholeheartedly; almost every ‘review’ I read consists of repeating the same bullshit “Half a reunion?” and then going on to not discuss the album at all, merely the personalities involved.
As you said, it’s no Siamese Dream.. but then again, can there ever be another Siamese Dream (or Mellon Collie for that matter..)
Well said, Andrew. That whole “half-reunion” thing has annoyed me on grounds of pure ignorance. Billy Corgan was the sole songwriter before the breakup and ruled that group with an iron fist. He’s alleged to have replaced James and D’Arcy’s recorded contributions. Even if he didn’t, no one is going to convince me that what Zeitgeist needed to sound like a real Pumpkins record was D’Arcy’s bass playing. That’s just dumb. Sure, I wish James and D’Arcy (or Melissa) were in the band, but their absence bears no real impact on the album or its music. As a collection of songs, Zeitgeist is pretty good.