The Smashing Pumpkins: Yeah, I Guess They Were Big

The Smashing Pumpkins have a new album out. I haven’t heard it. They played Montreal at some big outdoor festival. I didn’t see it. Yet, by the news of their newest release, and their past locally played show, I was given the idea of listening to some of their earlier stuff. While most point to Siamese Dream as the one to have, and I can’t DISagree with this position, I found myself attracted to another album that I literally had not touched (other than to move it out of the way of some other album I coveted) in ten years. Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness came out when I was in grade seven. I was twelve and prepubescent, yet an aspiring pubescent, who loved this album along with nearly everyone else my age.

When I finally got around to relistening to Mellon Collie - nearly as if it were new itself - I began to remember certain things from that era that I hadn’t thought of in a great long time. Aside from the typical sentimentality of recalling people from my past and the general emotional tone of my junior-high years, one thing really stood out to me about this particular album that I had totally forgotten: Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness was a HUGE fucking album. In the last few years I had written it off as a general semi-success and convinced myself that Siamese Dream was the one to know, but now after relistening to both, I no longer hold that opinion. I forgot that when Mellon Collie came out The Smashing Pumpkins were the BIGGEST band in the world, and that is no understatement. They were absolutely everywhere. This album had like seven number one hits. They used to play “Zero” at school dances and people would cheer the gloomy hardened opening riff as if it were a national anthem. But when I was a kid (and this is no longer true), I was often guilty of only listening to the hits on an album and ignoring the rest.

But now that I have listened to the album through and through, I am completely impressed with the depth and diversity present within it - the unique and distinguishable sound of the Smashing Pumpkins is present in every song; however, that same identifiable Pumpkins sound appears in so many different types of songs: the gloomy and angry “Zero”, “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” or “Ode to No One,” but also there is the soft and touching “Here is No Why,” “Cupid De Locke,” or “Galapagos.” It is a double album of impressive diversity that, in many ways, bridges the classic 90’s alternative sound with the more contemporary indie rock passivity and sentimentality. Mellon Collie contains several hard, angry, loud songs which are sometimes difficult to get through (still excellent in their composition), and in direct contrast also has softer and more emotional tracks that create a really interesting dynamic and a fullness to the album assuring Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness to be remembered for a long time to come - that is, if everyone hasn’t already forgotten it.

The fact that Mellon Collie is a double album makes it an easy target for unwarranted criticism. I used to say, “If Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness were a single disc it would be a total classic,” but now I have changed my tune - it is a total classic. This album is complete and should not have been shortened, and I’m glad it wasn’t. Sure, not every song is radio friendly or even melodic, but each song has their place within this carefully thought-out surprisingly diverse collection of music. Let us not forget that, these days, the double album is a rare occurrence. Not many bands have the guts or the ambition to release such a massive collection at once. In fact, (perhaps I’m wrong) I can’t name a double album release of all new material since this album’s debut. The closest thing I can think of is Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac: two separate releases which are very similar albums and were written concurrently and could have been released together. Radiohead chose not to do so, and while I don’t disagree with their decision, it would have been an exciting and unexpected move by a band known for being low-key about their rock star status.

Is Mellon Collie the last double album we’ll see in Rock? If it is, it was a good one and (arguably) the last album that really had the big rock band pop-alternative feeling of the early 90’s before things changed sometime between the death of Kurt Cobain and the emergence of “pop” with The Backstreet Boys, The Spice Girls, and the rest of their ilk (not to mention all the crap rock bands that spewed their shit across the airwaves during the late nineties: Smash Mouth, Limp Bizkit, The Foo Fighters, and Creed). I recommend everyone re-embrace this album. I’m sure there’re plenty of you out there who disregarded it as something no longer worthwhile, or at least like me regarded it as a second rate album. You should all give it a re-listen, that is... if you give a shit at all.