365 – New Music Daily

Incredibly ‘edged’-out (for lack of a better term) guitars, a mix between the wall of sound vocals vs. the sort of Robert Plant esque higher pitch vocals for Billy Corgan and really solid rock percussion makes up the bulk of the Smashing Pumpkins sonic profile, a band that also doesn’t really make fit the bill as someone I’ve never checked out before.

This album bounces between the harder grunge sound on songs like Rocket and Pissant, to the more laid back sounds of songs like Luna and Soma, and even goes back and forth inter-song in Silverfuck and Geek U.S.A. The album does lose me on the more straightforward mellowed out songs (e.g., Disarm, Spaceboy) – not necessarily because they’re bad, but moreso if I want that kind of music I’m going somewhere else.

Because Billy Corgan does remind me of Plant on some of his more screamy sections, alongside the fact that Zep was the blueprint for a lot of this sound (naturally), I also feel that there is a chunk of this album that I would chalk up to coming off as heavy Zeppelin influenced, to the point that I would just rather listen to Zep. Overall though, I did enjoy this album, and when I have 6 hours to kill I will definitely check out Melon Collie (why the fuck is it so long. Even this one is ridiculously long with all the fucking broadway sessions god damn)

Favorite songs: Cherub Rock, Quiet, Rocket, Soma, Geek U.S.A, Silverfuck, Luna, Pissant