Bullet With Butterfly Wings (Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins)

Member Name: Going To California

Product:	Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins
Date:	17/07/00 (153 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: combines all the elements of the Smashing Pumpkins musical traits. Twenty-eight huge tracks...just brilliant

Disadvantages: one or two tracks may appear tagged on for the sake of making up the numbers

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 performed by the Smashing Pumpkins of 1995 (Billy Corgan, James Iha, D'Arcy, Jimmy Chamberlain)

The Smashing Pumpkins have been described as an alternative rock band, but if you are after a brilliant double album there can be no alternative to Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness. Produced after the successes of Gish and
Siamese Dream (and the brilliant collection of "inferior b-sides", Pisces Iscariot), Mellon Collie blends all of the Pumpkins main styles into twenty eight massive alternative prog-rock tracks. This massive collection of underestimated and understated alternative rock classics has been described as bloated and excessive, but given the choice of 11 songs or 28 which would you take? Exactly.

The rate of Billy Corgan's creative genius is incredible as Mellon Collie, bloated as some critics may say, never diminishes in quality to the extent that you lose interest. As soon as one song threatens to loose the listener (because, like with all albums, there are moments that are not as inspiring as the rest) the follow up track snatches him/her back again, and never once through the mammoth double-CD is the listener able to ignore the extent and quality of the Pumpkins' work.

Disc One - dawn to dusk;

the balance seems more tow
ards soft, gentle, smooth mellow ballads...the title track, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is a rare prize indeed, a piano instrumental from the same group that had previously recorded the massive and heavy Cherub Rock or Silverfuck. Following Mellon Collie, Tonight Tonight remains as one of the Pumpkins stand out tracks. It seems that whatever they do has to be big, and this is born out in Tonight Tonight, a song that remains one of the pumpkins biggest commercial successes (an epic of strings, guitars, and lyrics that Shakespeare would writhe in envy at the sight of). After the more uptempo Jellybelly comes the crashing masterpiece of Zero, one of the all-time Pumpkins songs. An umistakable, and unavoidably attention-grabbing, guitar harmonics introduction indicates the start of what is, arguably, the grandest and loudest song on the album. Following Zero, track 6, Bullet With Butterfly Wings combines the two ends of the Pumpkins spectre , and is a highlight of an illuminating double album.

Later on disc one, the balance reverts to the quiet side of Billy Corgan's songwriting; Cupid de Locke, Galapogos, Porcelina of the vast oceans, and Take Me Down (written and performed by guitarist James Iha). With one last kick of amps in Muzzle, the Pumpkins sign off disc one leaving you craving for more...and that's where disc two comes in.

Disc Two - Twilight to Starlight;
Where Boys Fear To Tread begins with one of the Pumpkins heaviest bass and guitar introductions on the album, and it certainly kicks off disc two with a bang. Bodies (one of my favourite all-time SP songs) continues along a similar pattern before Thirty-Three reverts the balance towards the mellow once again.

Track 5 (no.19 in all) is one of the Smashing Pumpkins biggest successes, and is certainly one of the more popular tracks from their career...'1979'. As with many Pumpkins songs, the introduction immediately indicates the song; a few dr
um rolls then some slide guitar work. 1979 really is a masterpiece on the album, and is one of the highlights of Billy Corgan's writing career - he wrote it in one evening just so he could fit it into Mellon Collie.

Thru The Eyes of Ruby is another highlight which, for all you anoraks out there, contains music that was used in Jim Carey's 'Ace Ventura; Pet Detective' movie.
Further on into the disc, Stumbleine sweeps majestically from Corgan's acoustic guitar. The quietest and most beautiful song on the album, Stumbleine is another highlight of a 2CD album that maintains consistency throughout. The second disk ends as one might expect it to, quietly and gently drifting its way through lullaby tracks like Farewell And Goodnight (the only Pumpkins song in which all members of the band sing.

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness is the crowing centerpiece of The Smashing Pumpkins, even against such classic albums as Siamese Dream and Adore. If you only ever buy one Pumpkins album, make it this one...it combines the quiet, subtlety of Adore with the heavy rock of Machina The Machines of God and the early 1990s raw youthful energy of Siamese Dream sonic-rocj. Twenty-eight mammoth tracks that no opinion or review can do justice, it needs to be heard to be appreciated. Highly recommended, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness is one of the best Smashing Pumpkins album, the best double-album, and one of the best albums of the 1990s.

In the highest credit for a double-album, it can confidently be said that either of the two CDs could stand alone as a successful single album, which reflects the quality of this collection.

If I were to recommend any one album from the 1990s, or from any era for that matter, then I would have to really think hard before coming up with an album even greater than Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. Whilst in the Top Albums of the 1990s Nirvana may have won for overall infl
uence and, and Radiohead and Beck may have come second and third for originality and experimentation, The Smashing Pumpkins certainly come first for sheer songwriting genius.

Kurt Cobain, Thom Yorke, Noel Gallagher, John Lennon, and all the other great songwriters do not hold anything above Billy Corgan. In my eyes at least he is one of the most underrated musicians, lyricists, and creative artists of recent times. Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness is the crowning glory of a dazzling career.

Billy Corgan can effortlessly go from the composing orchestral magician to stadium-rock-riff-monster-God from one moment to the next (see Porcelina of the Vast Oceans)...and it is this creativity that makes the Smashing Pumpkins one of the most important bands of recent times, and makes Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness one of the greatest albums to be released before, during, and since the 1990s. Now that the Smashing Pumpkins have split up and called it a day for good, no record player or CD collection should be complete without this album. A masterpiece.

Tracklist :
(disc one) Mellon collie and the infinite sadness, tonight tonight, jellybelly, zero, here is no why, bullet with butterfly wings, to forgive, an ode to no one, love, cupid de locke, galapogos, muzzle, porcelina of the vast oceans, take me down

(disc two) where boys fear to tread, bodies, thirty-three, in the arms of sleep, 1979, tales of a scorched earth, thru the eyes of ruby, stumbleine, x.y.u, we only come out at night, beautiful, lily (my one and only), by starlight, farewell and goodnight

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS: "Gish" (1990), "Siamese Dream" (1993), "Pisces Iscariot" (1994), "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness" (1995), "Adore" (1998), "Machina: The Machines Of God" (2000), "Machina II: The Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music" (2000-limited edition, mass available on MP3
format only)

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