Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist

Rating: 7.2/10

Sound: 8
Lyrics: 8
Sound/Production Quality: 7
Impression: 7
Replay Value: 6
Tilt: 7

Release Date: July 10th, 2007
Genre: Alternative Rock
Key Tracks: 7 Shades of Black, Tarantula, United States

The Smashing Pumpkins are finally back! After a 7-year hiatus, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain have agreed to write new material as the Smashing Pumpkins once more. However, guitarist James Iha and bassists D'arcy Wretzky and Melissa Auf der Maur are not present on these new recordings, so much skepticism has arisen from this reunion. Corgan and Chamberlain recorded this record alone (Jimmy arranging the drums and searching for new band members; Billy singing, playing bass and guitar), an impressive feat for two people to accomplish. In the end, Ginger Reyes on bass and Jeff Schroeder on guitar were hired for the tour and Zeitgeist was released in July to massive sales (#2 on the Billboard Top 200, #1 in Canada, the UK and New Zealand).

The album opens to Doomsday Clock, a somewhat heavy opener, similar to The Everlasting Gaze on MACHINA. There song isn't bad, but the chorus isn't nearly catchy enough to make this one a great start to the trip. We then enter 7 Shades of Black, a classic Pumpkins-style track. This track alone proves that the passion, force and attention to detail the Pumpkins possessed in the 90s is still somewhere inside Billy and Jimmy, yet they're having a hard time bringing it out. That feeling is mutual with Bleeding the Orchid, though I did find it got old very fast. The chorus was hard to listen to, although the lyrics were great.

Now we arrive at That's The Way (My Love Is), one of those Pumpkins ballads that you could never really tell where to place. It was like the song To Forgive on their magnum opus, Mellon Cholie and the Infinite Sadness: just as you were really getting into it with songs like Jellybelly and Zero, Billy slips a really soft song in there and you're left with a "what the fuck just happened?" kinda feeling that I really didn't like. It's not a terrible song itself, but it left me with that feeling and I hate the feeling (on another note, it would have been good as a Zwan B-side or something). Either way, the song progresses into Tarantula, the song's big single. This song opens to a riff you'd expect on an early Pumpkins record: heavy, distorted and hits you like a boulder after that slow ballad. Again, the song's chorus is kind of inaudible, yet the lyrics are Pumpkins all the way: "I wanna be there when you're happy/I wanna love you when you're sad." The song escalates to that point where all you can hear is Billy screaming the guitar. That's total rock n' roll for me. Love it.

From that powerhouse, we enter Starz, one of those songs where the lyrics go in one ear and out the other except for one phrase ("We are stars...WE are...We are stars...WE aaaare") that really starts to piss you off once it's stuck in your head. However, the song finally quiets down and we enter United States, a 10-minute long track, classic to Pumpkins fans. In the first era, there was always that long track (Silverfuck, X.Y.U., Glass and the Ghost Children) that you'd just get lost in whenever it played. United States is that track on this album and it's excellent. Rich in lengthy progressions and cool drum beats, it's one not to be missed. But just as we're returning to the classics, Corgan takes the inspiration from his Zwan project to close this album, throwing a series of 3-minute, meaningless tracks (Neverlost, Bring the Light, (Come On) Let's Go) at us that leave us with a cool rock beat, but not much else. Then, to close, Corgan breaks out the keyboard on For God and Country, again forgettable, and finally ends Zeitgeist with Pomp and Circumstances, a song that would sound more at home on My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade.

In conclusion, the Smashing Pumpkins' return may have been a little premature. While it is incredible to have them back and making music once more (and while it's even more incredible that I can finally get out to a live show), on the music front, they're Swiss cheese. Sure, some of Zeitgeist's tracks are catchy and intriguing, but there are more pros than cons. However, give it some time, maybe convince James and D'arcy to come back, and then we'll see what the Pumpkins can bring out. In other words, this is the start of a work in progress.

Images:
1) Zeitgeist album cover
http://landslide.2007.org/zeitgeist.jpg
2) Ginger Reyes while filming the Tarantula video
http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/gallery/pics/DSC_0063.JPG
3) Billy Corgan and Jeff Schroeder rockin' it out in Madrid
http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/gallery/pics/P1020318.JPG