That's right, no more scores at the end of reviews I may do. I've wondered about this when reading reviews for a while, to be honest. A two or three might be a safe way of saying "average" to many whereas the text of a review could reveal glorious failure too....It could be a good album with plenty of flaws whereas a simple glance at the score suggests only mediocrity.
Another thing I've decided upon is that I'll revisit albums I've dedicated reviews to if I feel as though my opinion has switched in any way months or even years down the line. I've lost count of the amount of times in the past that I've loved an album and then decided later on that it's not as appealing as I initially felt, and the same applies in reverse....how many times are you not keen on something the first few times you hear it, but then come to gain greater appreciation later on....?
Wednesday 11 July 2007
Sunday 8 July 2007
Musings on Smashing Pumpkins tracks not to be included on Zeitgeist / Interpol....
As stated in my review of the new Smashing Pumpkins album Zeitgeist, I believe that there is enough to suggest that Billy Corgan remains a songwriter of more than respectable ability, but that in recent years his bizarre choices in the recording of songs often leads to them being ruined, something which most obviously reared its head with Machina / The Machines Of God.
Here's another thing that's come to bother me about some of his recent projects: His judgment. Back in the Siamese Dream / Mellon Collie eras he was so incredibly prolific and proficient that it *didn't matter* that there were gems that didn't make the albums - The records were so strong by themselves that the brilliant b-sides were just a sumptuous bonus. The two commercially released Adore singles were relatively slim on such offerings, but never mind, the album was fantastic and that is what truly mattered.
Machina / The Machines Of God posed more of a problem. As anyone who heard live shows from that era or who downloaded Machina II / The Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music (available free & legally here, for anyone who wants it) will know that there were an awful lot of wonderful songs recorded in this era. They'll also quite possibly think - as I do - that the production lets more than a few down, but I'll put that aside for a moment. There was quite a bit of crap recorded during those sessions too - rather a lot more, I'd suggest, than during the Mellon Collie era, which produced a gargantuan number of songs. This wouldn't be a problem if the cream of the crop was selected for the album which came to retail, but that wasn't the case. If a composite release of the best of the Machina sessions had been the one which emerged in early 2000, we'd have a contender for the best Smashing Pumpkins album. As it is, we don't.
So why bring that up now? Well, because if the evidence of the three 'bonus tracks' ("Stellar" from Itunes, "Death From Above" via Best Buy or as the b-side of the Tarantula single & "Zeitgeist" if you purchase the record from Target) he's at it again, because these songs are all really rather good, certainly a lot better than Zeitgeist's weakest moments. In fact, the album would get a Three and a Half from me if, say, "Zeitgeist" (acoustic prettiness which could have come from 1995) replaced "Starz", "Stellar" (dreamy, upbeat yet melancholy guitar driven effort) effort bumped "United States" & "Death From Above" (A successful synth-pop offering, perhaps seen as being too similar to TheFutureEmbrace to warrant inclusion...?) replaced "Bring The Light" or "For God And Country".
Plenty of people will disagree with that, but for me at least they would transform the record from a half-good one into an album with only a couple of weaker tracks. Billy Corgan is a *great* songwriter - It's just a shame that he's also his own worst enemy.
I'm looking forward to writing about the new Interpol album Our Love To Admire and will hopefully have a review up by the end of the week.
Here's another thing that's come to bother me about some of his recent projects: His judgment. Back in the Siamese Dream / Mellon Collie eras he was so incredibly prolific and proficient that it *didn't matter* that there were gems that didn't make the albums - The records were so strong by themselves that the brilliant b-sides were just a sumptuous bonus. The two commercially released Adore singles were relatively slim on such offerings, but never mind, the album was fantastic and that is what truly mattered.
Machina / The Machines Of God posed more of a problem. As anyone who heard live shows from that era or who downloaded Machina II / The Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music (available free & legally here, for anyone who wants it) will know that there were an awful lot of wonderful songs recorded in this era. They'll also quite possibly think - as I do - that the production lets more than a few down, but I'll put that aside for a moment. There was quite a bit of crap recorded during those sessions too - rather a lot more, I'd suggest, than during the Mellon Collie era, which produced a gargantuan number of songs. This wouldn't be a problem if the cream of the crop was selected for the album which came to retail, but that wasn't the case. If a composite release of the best of the Machina sessions had been the one which emerged in early 2000, we'd have a contender for the best Smashing Pumpkins album. As it is, we don't.
So why bring that up now? Well, because if the evidence of the three 'bonus tracks' ("Stellar" from Itunes, "Death From Above" via Best Buy or as the b-side of the Tarantula single & "Zeitgeist" if you purchase the record from Target) he's at it again, because these songs are all really rather good, certainly a lot better than Zeitgeist's weakest moments. In fact, the album would get a Three and a Half from me if, say, "Zeitgeist" (acoustic prettiness which could have come from 1995) replaced "Starz", "Stellar" (dreamy, upbeat yet melancholy guitar driven effort) effort bumped "United States" & "Death From Above" (A successful synth-pop offering, perhaps seen as being too similar to TheFutureEmbrace to warrant inclusion...?) replaced "Bring The Light" or "For God And Country".
Plenty of people will disagree with that, but for me at least they would transform the record from a half-good one into an album with only a couple of weaker tracks. Billy Corgan is a *great* songwriter - It's just a shame that he's also his own worst enemy.
I'm looking forward to writing about the new Interpol album Our Love To Admire and will hopefully have a review up by the end of the week.
Friday 6 July 2007
Review: Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
Warner
Released: 09/07/2007
Seven years on and Corgan is the Pumpkin King once more
Since calling a halt to Smashing Pumpkins in 2000, Billy Corgan has resembled a man unsure of where his next musical calling should lie - Zwan emerged within a year of the Pumpkins' final show, their only recorded offering 2003's buoyant collection of sunny pop-rock Mary Star Of The Sea. Promises of live DVDs and acoustic albums were unfortunately never fulfilled when the band imploded acrimoniously less than six months after the record's release.
The next port of call for Corgan was the solo record he had long been expected to make. This came with 2005's TheFutureEmbrace, a curious yet endearing collection of synth-pop sketches seemingly plucked from 1986, which flew so quickly past the radar that no one outside the remnants of his hardcore fan base noticed its release. Tickets for small solo-shows were practically thrust upon people by desperate touts looking to cut their losses - a curious position for a man who, less than five years earlier, was leading his band on a grand farewell tour, selling out arenas across the globe. The album didn't come close to matching 1998's wonderful, poignant Adore - its closest relative in Corgan's discography - but neither was it deserving of the bile many reviewers thrust upon it.
Corgan appeared to know prior to the release of his solo debut that interest in his name was at an all-time low, which seemed to be why he announced that he was going to "reunite" his band in a series of adverts run in Chicago newspapers. The Smashing Pumpkins were going to return triumphantly, much to the delight of old fans and and blaze a trail through the present day musical scene while they were at it...
...Well, sort of. Here we are in 2007 and Smashing Pumpkins are indeed back with a new album. They haven't quite reunited (Corgan and his long-term musical foil, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, are the only original members left) leaving this comeback resembling the return of The Wedding Present or Echo & The Bunnymen rather than a full-scale reunion ala The Police. However, much like Robert Smith and his regularly revolving cast of characters with The Cure, Corgan was the singular driving force in The Smashing Pumpkins and can surely use the name as he wishes.
Zeitgeist itself, however, is a frustrating mixed-bag of an album. A muddled brew of 'old' Pumpkins, Zwan & TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan proves that while he remains a songwriter of some repute, his tendency not just to over-egg the pudding but to cook it for 72 hours proves his downfall with this project, much as it did with Machina / The Machines Of God, a collection containing a number of his very best songs undone by botched production and frankly bizarre choices.
Beginning with a passable but unremarkable rock song in "Doomsday Clock", the record quickly finds its stride with "7 Shades Of Black" - Despite possessing the sort of title you might find scrawled on a 15 year old Goth's diary, it actually manages to be an impressive revival of the heavier style of many tracks found on 1995's enormously successful Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness without even trying to sound as angst-ridden as its name may suggest. After "Bleeding The Orchid" chugs away decently (while failing to truly live up to its initial promise) , an absolute highlight arrives in the shape of "That's The Way (My Love Is)" - the type of wonderful, upbeat "Cure with distortion" style pop song that Billy Corgan does as well as anyone. Indeed, it restates just why Smashing Pumpkins were so good in their 90s prime and just why Corgan remains a formidable artist when his mind is at it. The album's first single "Tarantula" follows and is a playful slice of over the top rock music which you sense that it's aware of its own silliness, helping to make the song one of the album's highlights. It crunches and fizzes as the best heavy Smashing Pumpkins songs really ought to. Unfortunately, these joyous highs are followed an overproduced low in "Starz", which is followed by almost 10 minutes of the mind-numbingly dull "United States". Whereas Corgan could once be relied upon to make a lengthy epic compelling from start to finish (as recently as Zwan's "Jesus I / Mary Star Of The Sea") here he seems so short of ideas that it's almost embarrassing. It's just as well that after two stinkers, salvation arrives with the lovely, delicate "Neverlost". Sounding like the result of a union between early, pre-Gish Pumpkins and Adore it's a song which deserves better company. "Bright The Light", sadly, resumes the slump. It starts well and finishes very nicely, but is almost destroyed by a ridiculous 'rAwK!!!' breakdown so out of place that you wonder if it wasn't deliberately sabotaged. "(Come On) Let's Go!" on the other hand, is like a playful combination of "Zero" and one of Zwan's out-and-out pop songs -- Unsurprisingly, it's much better than the track it follows.
As mentioned earlier, Corgan's tendency to over bake songs is what often turns a potentially brilliant piece into a dud. It's a trait shown throughout this album, with superfluous electronic noises a regular irritation and no otherwise good song suffers more than "For God And Country". Had Corgan stripped it back to consist simply of the spooky piano, bass and synth line (which almost apes David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes") he would have a winner on his hands. Instead it also features pointless electric guitar, backing vocals recorded in the style favoured by handlers of early Britney Spears material and a boring, clunky drum beat by the usually excellent Jimmy Chamberlin (his contribution to United States is by far its best aspect), who really didn't need to be let near this particular song. A last gasp piece of redemption comes in the form of "Pomp And Circumstances". It should be awful - A ridiculous combination of "The Frog Chorus" and Morrissey's "At Last I Am Born", it has no right to succeed. Somehow, however, it does. It manages to straddle the extremely fine line between utter, bare faced pretension and tenderness. Even a late attempt to ruin it - surely the result of Corgan and pomp-rock producer Roy Thomas Baker (Queen, The Cars, The Darkness) working together - by nuking it with a preposterous guitar solo parachuted in from a Queen (or, perhaps, the last Darkness) album fails to kill the song.
I shall repeat myself by saying that Zeitgeist, more than anything, is a frustrating album - If released as an EP with its six best offerings, it would be overwhelming reason to feel that Billy Corgan remains a song writer who could recapture the world's ears at any moment. As it is, that's only half the story, with the remainder of the album feeling either uninspired and cobbled together or downright awful. You sense that if Billy Corgan reigns himself in and hands over the production & mixing duties almost entirely to a talented outside producer, it would result in future Smashing Pumpkins albums fulfilling the considerable promise displayed by this record's finest offerings while going some way to eliminating its more infuriating aspects. Corgan could then focus on his greatest gift: That of songwriting.
Billy Corgan's discography, a brief overview:
Smashing Pumpkins
Gish - A steady start, suggests a band of some promise.
Siamese Dream - Second albums rarely come better than this lavishly recorded classic.
Pisces Iscariot - When even Smashing Pumpkins' leftovers were solid gold.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - 28 songs - A bit of crap, a lot of brilliance.
The Aeroplane Flies High - Singles, b-sides box-set. See Pisces Iscariot description.
Adore - Low key, 80s influenced beauty: An oft-under appreciated wonder.
Machina / The Machines Of God - The majority of the songs are good (some rank amongst Corgan's very best), the majority of the production is abysmal.
Zwan
Mary Star Of The Sea - Retrospectively - and unfairly - ridiculed collection of joyous, sunny pop-rock songs.
Solo
TheFutureEmbrace - It's back to 1980s Britain for a slight but decent solo debut.
Warner
Released: 09/07/2007
Seven years on and Corgan is the Pumpkin King once more
Since calling a halt to Smashing Pumpkins in 2000, Billy Corgan has resembled a man unsure of where his next musical calling should lie - Zwan emerged within a year of the Pumpkins' final show, their only recorded offering 2003's buoyant collection of sunny pop-rock Mary Star Of The Sea. Promises of live DVDs and acoustic albums were unfortunately never fulfilled when the band imploded acrimoniously less than six months after the record's release.
The next port of call for Corgan was the solo record he had long been expected to make. This came with 2005's TheFutureEmbrace, a curious yet endearing collection of synth-pop sketches seemingly plucked from 1986, which flew so quickly past the radar that no one outside the remnants of his hardcore fan base noticed its release. Tickets for small solo-shows were practically thrust upon people by desperate touts looking to cut their losses - a curious position for a man who, less than five years earlier, was leading his band on a grand farewell tour, selling out arenas across the globe. The album didn't come close to matching 1998's wonderful, poignant Adore - its closest relative in Corgan's discography - but neither was it deserving of the bile many reviewers thrust upon it.
Corgan appeared to know prior to the release of his solo debut that interest in his name was at an all-time low, which seemed to be why he announced that he was going to "reunite" his band in a series of adverts run in Chicago newspapers. The Smashing Pumpkins were going to return triumphantly, much to the delight of old fans and and blaze a trail through the present day musical scene while they were at it...
...Well, sort of. Here we are in 2007 and Smashing Pumpkins are indeed back with a new album. They haven't quite reunited (Corgan and his long-term musical foil, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, are the only original members left) leaving this comeback resembling the return of The Wedding Present or Echo & The Bunnymen rather than a full-scale reunion ala The Police. However, much like Robert Smith and his regularly revolving cast of characters with The Cure, Corgan was the singular driving force in The Smashing Pumpkins and can surely use the name as he wishes.
Zeitgeist itself, however, is a frustrating mixed-bag of an album. A muddled brew of 'old' Pumpkins, Zwan & TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan proves that while he remains a songwriter of some repute, his tendency not just to over-egg the pudding but to cook it for 72 hours proves his downfall with this project, much as it did with Machina / The Machines Of God, a collection containing a number of his very best songs undone by botched production and frankly bizarre choices.
Beginning with a passable but unremarkable rock song in "Doomsday Clock", the record quickly finds its stride with "7 Shades Of Black" - Despite possessing the sort of title you might find scrawled on a 15 year old Goth's diary, it actually manages to be an impressive revival of the heavier style of many tracks found on 1995's enormously successful Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness without even trying to sound as angst-ridden as its name may suggest. After "Bleeding The Orchid" chugs away decently (while failing to truly live up to its initial promise) , an absolute highlight arrives in the shape of "That's The Way (My Love Is)" - the type of wonderful, upbeat "Cure with distortion" style pop song that Billy Corgan does as well as anyone. Indeed, it restates just why Smashing Pumpkins were so good in their 90s prime and just why Corgan remains a formidable artist when his mind is at it. The album's first single "Tarantula" follows and is a playful slice of over the top rock music which you sense that it's aware of its own silliness, helping to make the song one of the album's highlights. It crunches and fizzes as the best heavy Smashing Pumpkins songs really ought to. Unfortunately, these joyous highs are followed an overproduced low in "Starz", which is followed by almost 10 minutes of the mind-numbingly dull "United States". Whereas Corgan could once be relied upon to make a lengthy epic compelling from start to finish (as recently as Zwan's "Jesus I / Mary Star Of The Sea") here he seems so short of ideas that it's almost embarrassing. It's just as well that after two stinkers, salvation arrives with the lovely, delicate "Neverlost". Sounding like the result of a union between early, pre-Gish Pumpkins and Adore it's a song which deserves better company. "Bright The Light", sadly, resumes the slump. It starts well and finishes very nicely, but is almost destroyed by a ridiculous 'rAwK!!!' breakdown so out of place that you wonder if it wasn't deliberately sabotaged. "(Come On) Let's Go!" on the other hand, is like a playful combination of "Zero" and one of Zwan's out-and-out pop songs -- Unsurprisingly, it's much better than the track it follows.
As mentioned earlier, Corgan's tendency to over bake songs is what often turns a potentially brilliant piece into a dud. It's a trait shown throughout this album, with superfluous electronic noises a regular irritation and no otherwise good song suffers more than "For God And Country". Had Corgan stripped it back to consist simply of the spooky piano, bass and synth line (which almost apes David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes") he would have a winner on his hands. Instead it also features pointless electric guitar, backing vocals recorded in the style favoured by handlers of early Britney Spears material and a boring, clunky drum beat by the usually excellent Jimmy Chamberlin (his contribution to United States is by far its best aspect), who really didn't need to be let near this particular song. A last gasp piece of redemption comes in the form of "Pomp And Circumstances". It should be awful - A ridiculous combination of "The Frog Chorus" and Morrissey's "At Last I Am Born", it has no right to succeed. Somehow, however, it does. It manages to straddle the extremely fine line between utter, bare faced pretension and tenderness. Even a late attempt to ruin it - surely the result of Corgan and pomp-rock producer Roy Thomas Baker (Queen, The Cars, The Darkness) working together - by nuking it with a preposterous guitar solo parachuted in from a Queen (or, perhaps, the last Darkness) album fails to kill the song.
I shall repeat myself by saying that Zeitgeist, more than anything, is a frustrating album - If released as an EP with its six best offerings, it would be overwhelming reason to feel that Billy Corgan remains a song writer who could recapture the world's ears at any moment. As it is, that's only half the story, with the remainder of the album feeling either uninspired and cobbled together or downright awful. You sense that if Billy Corgan reigns himself in and hands over the production & mixing duties almost entirely to a talented outside producer, it would result in future Smashing Pumpkins albums fulfilling the considerable promise displayed by this record's finest offerings while going some way to eliminating its more infuriating aspects. Corgan could then focus on his greatest gift: That of songwriting.
Billy Corgan's discography, a brief overview:
Smashing Pumpkins
Gish - A steady start, suggests a band of some promise.
Siamese Dream - Second albums rarely come better than this lavishly recorded classic.
Pisces Iscariot - When even Smashing Pumpkins' leftovers were solid gold.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - 28 songs - A bit of crap, a lot of brilliance.
The Aeroplane Flies High - Singles, b-sides box-set. See Pisces Iscariot description.
Adore - Low key, 80s influenced beauty: An oft-under appreciated wonder.
Machina / The Machines Of God - The majority of the songs are good (some rank amongst Corgan's very best), the majority of the production is abysmal.
Zwan
Mary Star Of The Sea - Retrospectively - and unfairly - ridiculed collection of joyous, sunny pop-rock songs.
Solo
TheFutureEmbrace - It's back to 1980s Britain for a slight but decent solo debut.
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