Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins

This is one of the best double albums ever produced. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness opens with a soothing, lush piano piece which is relaxing and calming, but from then on, the Smashing Pumpkins proceed to burst your ear drums with loud, crashing and beautiful noise. "Tonight Tonight" is a lyrical, emotion stirring masterpiece and the likes of "Muzzle", "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and "Zero" show the Pumpkins rocking at their very loudest. However, it's not all drums and distorted guitar and songs like "Galapagos" and "Take Me Down" are keen to point this out. The songs combine beautifully well and ...  Read the complete review

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins was one of the most influential albums of the 90's. Its music defined a generation, with a collection of some eclectic music that really broke new ground in the rock world. This album has been the inspiration for so many musicians in recent years and is one of my personal all time favourite albums. It has everything! Some simply beautiful songs and some real grunge head bangers. It's also a double album which is very unusual in modern music. It came out way back in 1995, Billy Corgan is the lead singer and songwriter and he shows exactly what kind of talent he has in this offering. So why ...  Read the complete review

Somehow this album manages to be good. Great even. All of its component parts point towards the fact that it should be cack....I mean, let's start with the title 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadeness'....what the hell does that mean? Surely one of the most pompous, non-ironic, terrible album titles of all time. Next there is the artwork. Absolutely perfect for an album entitled 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadeness'. Pseudo-Victorian, opium induced, psychedelic visions. How amazingly intelligent and arty Billy, well done. Last, but not least, there's the fact that it's a double album and everyone knows that bar a few exceptions, that ...  Read the complete review

I am amazed at how small the Smashing Pumpkins are in terms of world wide acclaim, given that Billy Corgan (the enigmatic frontman) has been responsible for the 5th and 19th best albums of the 1990s (according to authoratative US music magazine SPIN). In at 19 came Siamese Dream, the Pumpkins' breakthrough effort, their second album that launched them into the spotlight of post-Nirvana music culture. Then, as if it could not come any better, came Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (1995)...a huge collection of 28 songs on 2 CDs that holds an eternal place under lock and key in music's Hall of Fame. So here is my ode to Billy Corgan's masterpiece, as ...  Read the complete review

Released in 1995 to universal acclaim, the Smashing Pumpkins unleashed the double Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It underlined their reputation as fantastic songwriters and musicians, creating an almost unique sound that seems to come from an almost imaginary dreamworld at times. Corgan shows his song writing talent really well on this album. The lyrics are complicated and obtuse, seeming to mix the feelings of the modern teenager with fairy stories and classical mythology. The lyrics area almost as fascinating as the layered and varied sounds each song produces. The two discs contain about two hours of some of the finest music you’ll ...  Read the complete review