Smashing Pumpkins: Fresh Fruit or Rotten Veg?

I love James and his sense of humour. I think even Billy comes across pretty well in that video though, it was a better watch than I was expecting.

lol @ james

the little bit of the "drown" riff he plays at the end, wonderful

i confess i feel very happy when i see them getting along.

I still didn't finish listening to Billy's Cotillions but it already seems his best songs since zwan or machina.

listening to it now and it's sounding pretty good, pleasantly surprised. though i did think Shiny & Oh So Bright Vol. 1 was surprisingly good for what it was too so maybe he's finally making a return to form of sorts. Shiny & Oh So Bright Vol. 2 & 3 is being recorded at the moment apparently and it's going to be a double album with 24 tracks (not sure if it's being released as one or two albums though).

yes, Shiny & Oh So Bright Vol. 1 was way better than his previous albums, but i never felt the need to return to it. but, as you said, with this new one i'm also pleasantly surprised. let's hope he keeps in this form.

Billy has apparently discovered country music about 25 years after James Iha's Gram Parsons phase.

This sounds nice but seems way too samey to be this long?

kinda feeling that too. but still surprised.

this would also have maybe been a good time to take a step back from making his lyrics so impenetrable, but alas

nourry did you hear Ogilala? that one blew me away

never really got into 'ogilala'. something with the mix kinda put me off, but I have to give it another chance, i suppose.

The west coast rap origins of one of Billy Corgan's most famous couplets.

Shock G: I'm in a rage
Humpty: Oh yeah? Yo, why is that G?
Shock G: Other races, they say we act like rats in a cage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXGgWf2lacM&feature=youtu.be&t=188

whoever had "synth-pop" on their Corgan Pivots bingo card, step right up

Was just about to dig up this thread to see what anyone thought.

My immediate reaction is positive, if lukewarm, on first listen.

The sound is really cool but, as usual with late Corgan, the songs feel half-baked. he seems to have developed a fear of choruses

it's not even bad. it's just so completely nothing.

the last album was actually kinda alright, guess he's over that

whoever had "synth-pop" on their Corgan Pivots bingo card, step right up

wow it's like thefutureembrace never happened

"cyr" needs another part so bad to the point where i can hear this sudden explosion of major-key guitars in my head and it never happens

still on a basic level i think it's kinda cool and surprisingly not embarrassing, the backing vocals are great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4f2VcOva4M

remember this? it's fucking sick

I always forget about thefutureembrace cause it's not on spotify, in canada at least. it rules of course!

yeah zwan, thefutureembrace, and zeitgeist are all absent from streaming services

zwan really the big tragedy there

i'm really not thrilled with either of the new songs as songs but the arrangements are great, hope i hear something as good as "silvery sometimes" in this environment

hard to think of someone more in need of a solid guiding hand, and also no one I can think of less likely to accept said guidance

corgan getting bent into shape by a decent non-indulgent producer... ugh dare i dream. corgo would probably try to curse the studio afterward though

they actually really should make a record with jmj honestly

you say that about everyone but nevertheless otm

honestly, even just pondering what Oceania could have been like with a tough and sensible producer is mega frustrating

rick rubin did produce the last one so i'd presume he at least managed to provide some guidance especially since the results were well above average for corgan this century

Rubin hasn't produced a great album by himself since....when, exactly?

yeah rubin hasn't had a good track record for a long long time now but he still somehow garners the sort of respect that gets people like billy and kanye to listen to him

black sabbath 13 xp

but also i don't credit anything good about that record to rubin producing necessarily. rubin by many accounts has been a largely hands-off producer for like twenty years now. iirc his great contribution to the last sp record was reducing 16 songs to 8

yes his one innovation lately tends to be saying "shorter is better" to people who are inclined to say otherwise. but even that seems to be very selectively applied.

Sure doesn't seem to say it in reference to his beard but there you go.

lol

Wow, "Cyr" is bad.

Rubin did a great job on Ogilala. My favorite post-2000 BC/SP release.

Still just a year into my decade long sabbatical from SP & BC so I haven’t listened to the new songs. How are the vocals mixed? Dare I ask...

both of his recent solo releases were good

the vocals on these songs are mixed right up front and loud as has been the tradition since... zwan?

These new songs are okay? I think rather hear them call all our Future Embrace than hanging here in this sort of middle zone.

And again, a complaint I have with so much of the recent Pumpkins music - imagine having Jimmy Chamberlain behind the kit in your band and restricting him to.... this. Not that he does a bad job with it, but I want more chances for him to cut loose.

Damn autocorrect, Chamberlin.

xxp Some tradition.... ugh... you'd think BC would just record ONE b-side where he just like drenches his voice in flanger or delay or something. he should make something like Spaced again

how were those Gish "deep dives" on instagram he was doing?

"Tonight, Tonight" came on shuffle and I had two thoughts

1. corgan would be pleased to know that the 30somethings and probably others of today consider them among "the core, the heart music"
2. is it just me or is MCIS mixed quietly and softly on every release? it always stands out on a playlist in this regard. it almost seems like it's done on purpose to keep it as a little hermetic experience. (SD is also a bit quiet but not as much, I don't think)

was it flappy bird who informed me that it's mixed kind of flat bc of all its crazy dynamics? it's the thing that keeps me at a distance from it these days

this is maybe just a me problem but i have no idea how to tell the difference between the original masters and remasters of sp stuff unless it's really dramatic, iirc there's a weird edit on "crestfallen" (or "pug"?) on the adore remaster

yeah they're maybe a titch louder but in general the remasters have been pretty subtle, which is one reason the revamped Machina reissue concept was interesting

tbh that is the only sp news i'm interested in