Product description
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Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream - CD
.co.uk
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An introductory drum roll drops out and is replaced by a single
suspended electric guitar, which is then paralleled by a snare,
filled in with the bass, and--c!--"Cherub Rock", the opening
track, is enveloped in an explosion of metal guitar. So the
journey begins. This album is pre-experimentation vintage
Pumpkins. Produced by Butch Vig (Garbage, Sonic Youth, Nirvana's
Nevermind), Siamese Dream is first about guitars. Lots and lots
of guitars. A very close second is Jimmy Chamberlain's
unquestionably excellent power drumming. Throughout each song,
Billy Corgan delivers angsty lyrics in his signature breathy
whine. "Disarm" is a nice intermission halfway though the album.
As the title of the song suggests, it throws the listener into a
different mood with its full string arrangements and radiant
orchestral chimes. But then it is back to the aural masochism--a
pain that rarely sounds so sweet. --Beth Bessmer
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BBC Review
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The Smashing Pumpkins are... were... are? Sorry. The Smashing
Pumpkins were not a grunge band. (Billy Corgan's current outfit
truly isn't worthy of the name.) They were always Stadium Rock
Behemoths that had to wait a while to actually become Stadium
Rock Behemoths. Their debut LP, Gish, might have emerged in 1991,
year zero for grunge with the release of the world-conquering
Nevermind. But any similarities to Nirvana's chart-topper were
slight sonic parallels courtesy of sharing the same producer,
Butch Vig. The bands came from very different places, and took
very different directions. For Kurt Cobain fame and fortune was
seen, publically at least, as an aside to his art; Corgan,
meanwhile, had his s on setting the music world ablaze
however he could.
From the first rallying call of Cherub Rock–"hipsters unite"–it's
obvious to even the laziest listener that the Pumpkins' second LP
is a calculated exercise in exploitation, ticking the necessary
boxes of a market spoilt rotten by the post-Nevermind boom in
plaid-clad musicians full of angst they should have grown out of
already. But while it's full of clichés, Siamese Dream (again
with Vig on production) is in no way a bad album. It's the yin to
Nirvana's yang of In Utero–both albums released in 1993, one a
shiny statement of mainstream-courting intent, the other a bleak
withdrawal from such a position into one of leave-me-be
caterwauling. At no point does Siamese Dream not sound massive:
Cherub Rock has only just settled into silence before Quiet
begins its bludgeoning of the listener's senses. It features a
moment where Corgan seems to call out his grunge-era
peers-cum-rivals–"We are the fossils / the relics of our
time"–before lyrically turning his back on what's been for a
future painted gold.
Not before a moment's pause, mind–it's the most-tender tracks on
Siamese Dream that have endured better than the blitzes that
surround them, and Today is the best song Corgan has ever
written. The only song that comes close in the Pumpkins catalogue
is 1979, from 1995's sprawling double-album Mellon Collie and the
Infinite Sadness. (Oh, go on: I'll give you Tonight, Tonight from
the same album, too.) There is such purity to the line "today is
the greatest day I've ever known" that it will never age. However
much Corgan continues to pour misery on Pumpkins fans with his
persistent misadventures matters not a jot when he's got this in
his back pocket, ready to roll out at any show and have all in
attendance forgiving everything, if only for three glorious
minutes. Nutshell: Today is one of the greatest songs of all
time.
There are further highs to be found on Siamese Dream–the
soaring-and-screeching Mayonnaise was a big favourite of mine
back when, and Rocket and Disarm are memorable singles, the
latter a string-laden lament of uncommon intensity (banned from
Top of the Pops at the time due to some ambiguous lyrical
content). The album earned Grammy and MTV Award nominations, and
is frequently listed as one of the best long-players of the
1990s. In truth it's not as brilliant as it thinks it is, but
this is a collection that will always be well received when it
pops up on shuffle–albeit primarily because of its still-stunning
centrepiece, Today.
--Mike Diver Find more music at the BBC ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/syn//albumreviews/-/music/ ) This link
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