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The Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist

The first Smashing Pumpkins album in seven years came out this week. They officially broke up in 2000, and Billy Corgan "reformed" the band in 2005 after his disappointingly awful solo album, "TheFutureEmbrace." However, only two of the original members (Billy and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain) are present here, and Jimmy drummed not only on Billy's aforementioned solo album, but 2003's "Mary Star of the Sea," the only album by Billy's side-band Zwan, which was actually pretty decent. So in effect, this is not a reformed Smashing Pumpkins, but the same thing we've been getting from Billy Corgan for the past three years, with the SP name added on to sell more records.

The Smashing Pumpkins were my favorite band in high school, and I've spent countless hours listening to their albums over and over. However, in retrospect, it was really just 1993's "Siamese Dream" and 1995's "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness." Their first album, "Gish," is forgettable, and their final album, "MACHINA/the machines of god," is awful. 1998's "Adore" is notable for being the only album Billy's ever made without Jimmy Chamberlain (he was kicked out of the band in 1996 for his heroin addiction, following the overdose and death of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin. A drum machine stood in for Jimmy in "Adore," and he rejoined the band just in time for them to break up), and for being a huge departure from their previous stuff, and the most depressing fucking album Billy Corgan ever made. You could also count 1994's "Pisces Iscariot" and 1996's "The Aeroplane Flies High" among their great albums, but really they're just collections of songs that didn't make it onto "Siamese Dream" and "Mellon Collie."

So I was apprehensive about "Zeitgeist," knowing full well it was probably going to suck. And it does. It reminds me more of "MACHINA" and "Judas O," the second disc of unreleased material from their 2001 Greatest Hits collection. It has that whole "see? we're heavy! we're hard rawk!" vibe that MACHINA had following the more subdued "Adore," full of down-tuned guitars and frantic drumming. This is an album full of songs that sound like "The Everlasting Gaze," arguably the Smashing Pumpkins' worst single, not counting their "The End is the Beginning is the End" from the Batman & Robin soundtrack.

Admittedly, "Tarantula" is not as bad as the rest of the album, but in the same way that a piece of your least favorite candy sitting on top of a turd might be the highlight of the turd if you were forced to eat it.

Rating - 2 out of 5 pumpkins.

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