Greatest Hits

by

The Smashing Pumpkins

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The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the greatest bands of the 90s, a mixture of dreamy pop and stark grungey metal, set against Billy Corgan's poem-like songwriting. And "The Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits" almost lives up to its name -- there are one or two songs that don't quite fit here, but most of them are indeed the "Greatest" that the band produced.

The songs are pretty much arranged in chronological order, starting off with the hard-rocker "Siva" and heading off into the mixture of hard rock/metal, and eerie dreampop, climaxing with the rich offerings from "Mellon Collie And the Infinite Sadness." With the songs of "Adore," there's an obvious shift in tone, becoming a bit more gothic and less rockish, only to swing back in the slow-burning songs from "Machina," their swan song.

There is also a bonus disc here: "Judas O," the follow-up to B-sides collection "Pisces Iscariot." Like its predecessor, "Judas O" is a collection so solid that it outshines many proper albums, containing B-sides to "Machina/The Machines of God," "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," and the rare "Machina II," as well as some truly outstanding new songs. They range from gentle acoustics to explosive guitars, and reaffirm that even the discards from the Pumpkins are of excellent quality.

Long after disbanding, the Smashing Pumpkins are still a towering presence in rock -- they debuted in the era of Nirvana, but with a very different kind of music. Their creative use of basic instruments and Billy Corgan's rich songwriting made them much more complex and deeper than almost all rock bands of the time. And "Greatest Hits" follows them through the band's entire lifetime -- from their surprisingly polished debut to the panoramic "Mellon Collie" to their gothic art-rock.

The songs included on "Greatest Hits" are not just the most commercially known, but also several of the best -- "Ava Adore," "Siva," "1979" and "Tonight Tonight." An additional track is stuck on, "Real Love," but somehow it just isn't up to the standards of the other songs. It's nice, but not up to the level of the "Greatest" Smashing Pumpkins songs. For that, "Judas O" takes over.

Corgan was without a doubt the creative center of the Pumpkins -- he wrote the songs, filling them with doubts, anger and anguish, and also provided some mind-blowing guitar riffs and his vocals. His high, reedy voice is woven well into the music, giving his poetic lyrics an unusually heartfelt quality. He's singing about love, death, bombs, loneliness in a metaphorical wasteland.

The guitar and bass provide sizzling soundscapes and dense walls of sound, while the percussion is complex and lightning-fast. At the same time, we get the sweeping dreampop -- like the haunting "Rhinoceros" -- and gentler songs, where Corgan slows his guitar down to a gentle acoustic strum. That versatility is one of the things that made the Pumpkins so outstanding.

Rock doesn't get much more original than the Smashing Pumpkins, and several of their greatest hits -- both among fans and critics -- are compiled in "The Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits." The best-of disc is a good look at their work, but it's "Judas O" which makes this a must-have.

My advice to those with a casual interest in this band: get Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie. For whatever reason, their sound and style changed on every release. Therefore, the songs on this comp, while excellent, work better in the context of their original albums. That said, the diversity of their work is one of their greatest strengths. What binds it all is romance, virtuosity, and if you look close enough, honesty and integrity.

Four tracks on this cd are non-album tracks. Eye (from the Lost Highway sndtrk), Drown (from the Singles sndtrk where it is unedited, longer), Real Love (from the internet release "Machina II/the friends and enemies of modern music". better sound quality here as M2 is only available as vinyl-to-mp3), and Untitled which was the final single released by the band (a great song which radio ignored *sigh*. perhaps it should've been given a title)

I feel I should add that the song "Glynis" (from the No Alternative comp) is one of Billy Corgan's best songs and should've been a hit, and on this cd. The song has an effect on me unlike anything else. Absolutely beautiful.

If you become a fan of the albums, there are many, many unreleased/demo/b-side/otherwise non-album tracks to be found. The songlist/bootlist/discography on spfc.org will point you to them (you can choose to view only unreleased songs if you want). As far as obtaining this stuff, check out starla.org for the various message boards/trading community and good luck to ya.

I'm behind on this Bit Torrent thing and that may also be a good way of obtaining this stuff. There is a torrent site/tracker whatever on the same site as a message board i frequent (the-zomb.com...called zomb b/c it was formerly the zwan online message board/zwanonline.com, but now is not, lol :shrug:)