I have a confession to make. Although The Smashing Pumpkins are widely renowned and have released some incredibly important albums through their career (most notably 1995’s ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’) they have somehow managed to pass me by. Part of that is because I am always concentrating on material I have been sent to review, and had never been sent anything prior to this, and the other is that even though I read about them in the music press I never felt interested enough to discover them. This means that I am in the rather unusual position of writing a review about a multi-million selling band of which I do not know the back catalogue at all. What it does mean is that I am viewing this with fresh ears and am not influenced at all by the love of songs from previous releases.

In terms of personnel, there have been positive changes in recent years, which means that alongside Billy Corgan we have two other founder members in James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin, while Jeff Schroeder joined in 2007. What one immediately notices, is that this is a long album, and while technically that is the case as it is 72 minutes long and contains 20 songs, it feels much longer when it is being played, which generally is not a good thing. As with most bands, as time passes their music shifts and changes, and whereas The Smashing Pumpkins were seen originally as an alternative rock band, they are now into synth pop. While I have broad tastes in music, I was never a massive fan of this style of music back in the late Seventies and Eighties, and that viewpoint has not changed, as it always feels too false and contrived. Even though there is a real live drummer, often he has been replaced by a machine or is playing as if he is one, which is not what I expect at all.

10 (ten!!) of the 20 songs were released prior to the album as singles, and there are five videos and Corgan self-produced it. I am sure he is pleased with the end result, but it does not appear as if that was translated into chart success as it only reached #86 in Billboard and #71 in the UK, and while many bands would love to have success of that nature, The Smashing Pumpkins have a much higher profile. To me the album is sterile, over-produced, contains too many songs and not enough good ones, and is just hard work to get through. I doubt very much if I will ever play it again.

Rating: 6/10

Links:
https://www.sumerianmerch.com/
https://smashingpumpkins.com/