THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS:
Billy Corgan: All Vocals, Guitars, Bass Guitar, Keyboards and Synthesizers
Jeff Schroeder: Guitars
with
Tommy Lee: Drums
All music and lyrics by Billy Corgan
Produced by Howard Willing with Billy Corgan and Jeff Schroeder
Released December 9, 2014
"The Pumpkins these days, we don't really consider it a band anymore. It's more like a concept."
-Billy Corgan interview with Gigwise October 22, 2014
Precisely!!
On this site, and as recently as a few moths, ago, I have celebrated and defended Billy Corgan's musical vision as well as his right to continue releasing music under the banner of The Smashing Pumpkins despite the fact that he is the only original member of the band left standing--certainly a rock and roll normalcy and nothing approaching a musical crime.
Since the 2007 re-formation/re-invention of the band (or the concept as he is more willing to now describe), The Smashing Pumpkins have proven themselves to be a revolving door of musicians with Billy Corgan firmly at the epicenter as the sole creative songwriting force and widescreen conceptualist. For many in the fan community, all of the frequent personnel changes have proven themselves to be more than frustrating, leading one comment thread after another to still question whether The Smashing Pumpkins really are indeed who the name claims for them to be. As for me, and most especially while Corgan has confounded me with some of his decision making regarding his core musical collaborators, I have long reasoned to myself that as he proclaims, The Smashing Pumpkins are a concept, an umbrella that represents a certain aspect of Corgan's sonic identity and artistic vision, thus making him much less than a "band member" and much more like a figure like Guitarist Robert Fripp, the mastermind behind the legendary King Crimson, a band that has cataloged a 46 year history and a myriad of personnel changes with only Fripp himself as the guiding creative force.
I actually thought of King Crimson quite a bit as I first began listening to "Monuments To An Elegy," the latest album from The Smashing Pumpkins and the penultimate entry in the ongoing and wildly diverse "Teargarden By Kaleidyscope" musical saga, a 44 track song cycle loosely inspired by the Tarot which began as a series of free single downloads and continued with the near symphonic full album "Oceania" (released June 19, 2012).
Now I have to admit that I was more than saddened with the dual departures of both the sensational bassist/vocalist Nicole Fiorentino and drummer Mike Byrne (who was really a triple threat as he also played keyboards and sang) from the Pumpkins' fold as their contributions to Billy Corgan's songs made this version of the band one that could powerfully rival and possibly even eclipse the original foursome in some instances. Now with only ace gunslinger guitarist Jeff Schroeder (affectionately know in the fan community as "The Shredder") remaining as Corgan's right hand man, the duo enlisted the audacious aid of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee to perform the entirety of the album's percussive duties, therefore making The Smashing Pumpkins exist (at least for the time being) as power trio, much like the incarnation of King Crimson with their blazing album "Red" (released October 6, 1974) which served as that band's iinitialswan song in the 1970s.
In Billy Corgan's recent round of interviews, he has given much lip service to the idea of this new album and next year's Pumpkins' release "Day For Night" representing a definitive conclusion. To exactly what, I am not certain as Corgan is being simultaneously explicit and cagey. But, if "Monuments To An Elegy" means anything more than reaching the end of "Teargarden By Kaleidyscope," The Smashing Pumpkins, true to defiant form, are not going out quietly or with any less surprise and evolution as this new album shows a vibrancy and purpose that has not dulled with time. It has only sharpened.
Where "Oceania" often felt like a 60 minute prog rock symphonic spiritual odyssey divided into three or perhaps four movements, "Monuments To An Elegy" is pointedly marked by its brevity. This album is the shortest album in the entire Pumpkins discography and it is also the shortest album Billy Corgan has ever recorded. And yet, the brief running time of just a hair under 33 minutes has not marked this album as something incomplete. In fact, while "Monuments To An Elegy" is clearly an album that could only have been created in 2014, it strikingly feels like an album stemmed in the past to a degree. Yes, there are sonic signposts to past Pumpkins albums and material throughout but on a much larger thematic scale, and as most albums ran this length 45-50 years ago, "Monuments To An Elegy" is essentially an album of pop music Smashing Pumpkins style.
On "Monuments to An Elegy," there are no guitar solos to be found nor are there Corgan's trademark poetically arcane lyrics or any six, seven or nine minute epics. On this album and as with the pop music of the past, this collection of only nine songs were written to pack as much music as possible into a very brief amount of time and designed to connect on a more immediate level. In a way, this album feels like a collection of singles ready made for a variety of radio formats, again signifying the diversity of Billy Corgan's first rate songwriting which does indeed take center stage on "Monuments To An Elegy." All nine songs are filled to the tip-top with sparkling melodies, simpler and more repetitive lyrics and choruses that stick on first listen while somehow augmenting every song with the sound that has made The Smashing Pumpkins what they are. Elements of prog rock, metal, updated New Wave and warm synthetic textures plus acoustic gentleness flow together and through the album to create an infectious whole that rewards repeated listenings.
The album's opening track "Tiberius" is a dynamic head slammer (which began my King Crimson comparisons) as it possesses a nearly waltz like and shifting time signature and through the wormhole acceleration which finds Corgan, Schroeder and Lee in perfect and pulverizing swing and attack. It is a song that, to my ears, recalled the Pumpkins' nearly seven minute and vaguely nautical epic "A Song For A Son," itself the first track debuted for the entire "Teargarden By Kaleidyscope" project as Corgan sings, "I've seen the world upon a thousand dreams," a sentiment that suggests the lengthy musical journey we have all embarked upon together. And furthermore it is a track that is certainly befitting of carrying the name of a Roman Emperor (or possibly the middle name of a fictional Starfleet Captain with the the aggressive strut).
"One And All (We Are)" and the title track "Monuments" are sonic thunder and lightning, complete with the patented Pumpkins guitar army aesthetics and further propelled by Lee's roundhouse drumming which gives the tracks a taste of the classic Pumpkins sound and the swagger of Led Zeppelin, respectively. Conversely, "Being Beige" is a heavy ballad at its most yearning. "Cherry blossom, this is goodbye," Corgan sings over delicate acoustic guitar pickings, minimal keyboards and a subtle drum machine metronomic beat before Schroeder and especially Lee join in and lift the song up to the skies with Corgan's swirling backing vocals echoing the words "the world's on fire" on and on into infinity and accompanied by the spiraling guitars and galloping drums. This track feels superbly likes the album's beating heart.
Before I delve any further, I must returning to the conceit of the power trio for a moment. In addition to King Crimson I also found myself mentally returning to the triumvirate of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart, of course, collectively known as Rush and their work contained on the classic albums "Moving Pictures" (released February 12, 1981) and "Signals" (released September 9, 1982), both of which featured that band's increased usage and incorporation of keyboards and synthesizers into their hard progressive rock style. I mentioned Rush and those particular albums because throughout "Monuments To An Elegy," I was reminded of those works due to the simultaneously subtle and dense usage of keyboards and synthesizers within the Pumpkins' songs, thus increasing the scope of the music's palate.
"Anaise!" finds The Smashing Pumpkins nearly embracing disco of all things as Billy Corgan splashes out a DEEP bass groove that rests in the same neighborhood as Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust." While Tommy Lee's pounding catwalk drum beat and the coo of Corgan's androgynous backing vocals completely tickle the ear drums, the synths spring from the speakers suggesting that we are scrounging around some European nightclub.
Speaking of nightclubs, "Run2Me" is easily the album's most controversial track within the fan community due to its lyrical simplicity (or over-simplicity) combined with the wall of synthetic textures that again bring a Euro dance floor immediately to mind. Remember dear readers and listeners, we have not received a "rock" album so to speak but a"pop" album and this track is one that not only showcases the breadth of Corgan's songwriting ability but just might also be a commentary upon our pop saturated 21st century culture as well as existing as a song of romantic urgency. The percolating synthesizers take the full stage and the harmony vocals swim around each other urging the object of desire to perform the act within the song's title. But Tommy Lee's drums surprise and take the song in unexpected directions as his time keeping shows such snap, power, and precision with its martial forcefulness.
The comparatively pensive "Drum + Fife," where the keyboards take on an enveloping symphonic sweep, feels like the driving soul of the album where the aforementioned "Being Beige" is the heart. From the quiet Mellotron fife sounds that open the song and Tommy Lee's slightly behind the beat hopscotch drum beats that propel it, this track feels like the most personal statement within the album as Corgan informs us repeatedly that he will "bang this drum" to his "dying day," a message of purpose and defiance that suggests that maybe we may not be hearing the end of him after next year anyway.
The album's final two tracks truly pack a one-two punch. "Dorian" is a hypnotically sublime slab of dream pop whose synthetic textures and angular guitar work feels as if this song emerged from the netherworld that exists somewhere in between Echo And The Bunneymen and The Smiths. The body slamming "Anti-Hero" makes for a stellar closer as the downright dirty guitars and pulverizing drums provide a lusty power punk fury while the sprinkling synthesizers perfectly illustrate the interior romantic fireworks that occur as Corgan desperately tries to win the hand of "a girl like you."
"Monuments To An Elegy" is not a grand proclamation or an exercise in lushly devised progressive rock. This is an album of immediacy which definitely implores and rewards consistent and repeated listenings. The guitar work of Billy Corgan and Jeff Schroeder is meticulously seamless to the point that is is nearly impossible to exactly pinpoint where each member's work begins and ends. Tommy Lee is the wild card and it is truly amazing how well he has inserted himself within the Pumpkins' universe. While not as bombastically poly-rhythmic as the masterful Jimmy Chamberlin or the prodigiously talented Mike Byrne, Lee's slamming drums are much more straightforward, which is very befitting of the album's pop leanings and certainly they give the songs more space to breathe and allow the melodies and harmonies to take up the room.
And with that...where does the concept that is The Smashing Pumpkins head after next year's "Day For Night," which has yet to be recorded? Who knows, and that may even include Billy Corgan himself. But as Corgan has long contested, it is all about the journey and as long as The Smashing Pumpkins continue to release albums as strong as "Monuments To An Elegy," a work with continued vibrancy and purposefulness, I will follow the band...or this concept absolutely anywhere.
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