Good grief, Billy Corgan, what a long, strange seven years of Pumpkins-less music it’s been. Since the break-up of 90s rock giant The Smashing Pumpkins in 2000, Corgan largely abandoned his image as the poster boy for self-torment, embarking on one musical venture after another. Some may still remember the oddly religious, largely forgettable, sole Zwan album. (C’mon, you know you still have it carefully hidden in a drawer, under the burned copy of Pumpkins toss-aways, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music.)
Some things truly are best left untouched.
But, as fate would have it, on the eve of Corgan’s 2005 solo album release TheFutureEmbrace the front-man reached out to his former Pumpkins for a reunion. With only drummer Jimmy Chamberlin answering the call, Corgan signed up a pair of hired guns, Jeff Schroeder on guitar and Ginger Reyes on bass. Two years later, The Smashing Pumpkins are on tour supporting the release of a new album, Zeitgeist.
And since the latest incarnation of the Pumpkins does not quite contain the original line-up, it might be better to think of Zeitgeist as a Corgan solo album, perhaps if only to remove it from the Pumpkins’ discography.
Is Zeitgeist terrible? Not quite, but disappointing wouldn’t quite do it service either. “Doomsday Clock” contains about as much nuance as the Michael Bay movie it is currently featured in – the summer blockbuster Transformers. In fact, the first three songs on the album seem to bleed one into another, with little aside from tempo setting them apart.
The Smashing Pumpkins were always known for its effortless slacker drone, a sound as casual and shrugged-off as jeans and a flannel shirt. But at its creative apex, Siamese Dream, Corgan’s ear for gorgeous melodies and instantly classic riffs cut through the relative guitar haze. They captured the spirit of adolescence and rebellion in a mere 4:25 with “1979.”
Yet, with loftier ideas in mind – the album title evokes the collective experiences of a society defining itself and features a cover image of Lady Liberty up to her knees in water – Corgan and company largely fall short of capturing much besides mediocre heavy metal anthems. Pushing the ten minute mark with little reason, “United States” has Corgan calling repeatedly for revolution, inciting little more than an anxious click to the next track.
Even the more enjoyable moments (“Neverlost,” “For God And Country”) suffer from relative comparison to almost anything from The Smashing Pumpkins’ previous output. And the lows are painful. “Pomp And Circumstances” closes out Zeitgeist in all its ridiculously incongruous elements, while the first album single, “Tarantula,” reeks of the sort of generic head-banger rock the Pumpkins once sliced through some 15 years ago.
Though not quite the worst reunion album of the year (for shame Iggy Pop), Zeitgeist runs a close second, serving only as one more good reason to look back at The Smashing Pumpkins as they were -and continue to remember them that way.
Contact reporter Zachary
Herrman at zherrm@umd.edu.
