Here's my review of the new Smashing Pumpkins CD. It will run in the Spins section of the Creative Loafing that hits newsstands Aug. 8.
Zeitgeist
SMASHING PUMPKINS
Martha’s Music/Reprise
It’s understandable that people are excited at the mere mention of a new Smashing Pumpkins release. For many Gen-Xers, new music hasn’t mattered much since the early ’90 s. Regardless of whether there is any merit to that assertion, the alternative rock movement was inarguably a major event that, for a time at least, reverberated throughout popular culture. What we heard on the radio and watched on MTV was musicians updating and personalizing the rock records on which they were raised.
Bands were still comfortable with making music that rocked. The common thread running through it all was a righteous sense of rebellion. Nirvana brought the punk ethos whereas Pearl Jam had its heart in classic rock. The Red Hot Chili Peppers stood out as the funkiest of the bunch while Smashing Pumpkins staked its claim as the artiest band on the scene.
Billy Corgan, who always has been the Smashing Pumpkins (with various side musicians serving as his minions), proved adept at fusing heavy metal and ’70s prog-rock to create a sound as distinct as his pinched-whine vocals. That unmistakable voice is still intact on Zeitgeist, the first album to bear the Pumpkins name in seven years, but Corgan sounds unconvincing here.
The album rocks — the listener is confronted with piles of processed guitar parts — but the music fails to connect on either a gut or intellectual level. The disc’s nearly 10-minute centerpiece, “United States,†is a tired look at the “revolution blues.†The final track, “Pomp and Circumstances,†is a failed attempt at dreamy pop, which makes one simply want to punch up “1979.†The opener, “Doomsday Clock,†is the only track that makes a significant impression, thanks to its sheer power and a swooping hook that sticks. 2 1/2 stars —WT
This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2007.