“I’m trying to do something indescribable,” Billy Corgan told MTV in 1998, announcing the Smashing Pumpkins’ polarized fourth LP, a recreation of the Adore sound.
High mission but chilling: The album’s ballad brooding and light-hearted electronics don’t match the Pumpkins model of the previous seven years, leaving behind jarring guitar solos, masterful drums and uncanny layered production. He later revealed that the title was a play on “One Door”, poking fun at the new era in the band’s career. But in Kogan’s world, everything is cyclical, and not a single door closes completely. As one wise man sang: “The end is the beginning, there is the end.”
As a result, the Smashing Pumpkins have evolved over the years: responding to preconceived notions from fans and critics (2020′s artistic synth-pop Sira), sometimes evoking accelerated psycho-metal or gothic pop fantasy (2012 Oceania) of their storied past.
At the same time, the group as an entity has changed a lot. While calling Corgan himself the Smashing Pumpkins is no longer a cliché, his supporting roles often influence the music they make, at least in the spirit of maximizing talent. (A prime example is Jimmy Chamberlin, who has cemented a unique combination of jazz and heaviness into every album he plays. Well, almost – we’ll get to that later.)
Not all of them may be Siamese Dreams, but every Smashing Pumpkins project is at least hilarious—a reflection of Corgan’s constant craving for big announcements. Below we’ll go all the way, ranking all of the band’s studio albums (excluding compilations).
Post time: Sep-19-2022