Bittersweet Symphonies (Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins)

Member Name: MakeMeOver

Product:	Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins
Date:	16/04/03 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Glorious Melodies, Musically Expansive, Consistent

Disadvantages: They never recovered from this record's majesty.

Oh, Billy Corgan...

Always the one to make the grand gambit, always the one daring his fans to take ever-growing musical voyages with him... always the one to go out at the top of his game. And listening to Siamese Dream once again, it is quite sad, considering that the Smashing Pumpkins are no more, and never again produced a record as consistent as this.

And consistency is a very, very important word. Other Pumpkins albums such as Adore, Machina/The Machines Of God and most of all the bloated double-album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, although containing a plethora of memorable songs, never could carry that level of enjoyment the whole way through. For example, on Mellon Collie, one can listen to Bullet With Butterfly Wings several times, but then that electricity, that fire, that soul is completely wasted by following track To Forgive, a sluggish, languid ballad that goes nowhere.

Although other artists and some famous albums (Nevermind, The Bends) come to mind, nobody really suffered from the consistency syndrome as bad as Corgan and his chums. Corgan always wanted to be self-indulgent, sometimes taking simple three chord numbers to ridiculous lengths. This may be satisfying for his artistic pleasure, but songs like the ten minute "strummer" Glass and the Ghost Children can give the same effect to listener's as a sleeping pill.

But Siamese Dream, the Pumpkins' sophomore effort is a whole different bag. Along it's thirteen tracks, it never loses that quality, that power and that's why it is regarded as a classic of the grunge years. Although grunge is a very tentative term here. when people think of grunge, they think of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. But if all of these artists resemble the artistic expansion of The Rolling Stones, the Smashing Pumpkins resemble frickin' Beethoven.

Their songs are so expansive musically, so grand in scale and so ambitious, that it's no
wonder Billy Corgan couldn't keep this method of songwriting up for long, now going the easy pop/punk way with his new band Zwan (who are still very good). And Siamese Dream is a great example of this, with its songs constantly veering between happy and sad, exuberant and melancholic, the mood being set by either wailing guitar riffs or subdued acoustic strumming.

And the way the Pumpkins play their instruments is a force that needs to be heard to be believed. The drumming by Jimmy Chamberlin is second par to only the force of Dave Grohl, the bass riffs of D'Arcy recall the vigour of early Red Hot Chili Peppers at places while the guitars... the guitars are just unbelievable. Corgan's smooth playing technique with those silky sounding solos contrast well with James Iha's savage, brutal, angular riffing. The overall effect, and particularly shown on this album is a sterling mixture of punk, pop, classical, drum'n'bass, grunge, rock, mid-70s prog, blues and jazz.

The record is split fairly evenly between the epic rock ballads that sound like huge influences on Radiohead (Ok Computer-era) and the huge hulking rock songs that recall well, everything in between Elvis and Nirvana. And it's arguable at what the Pumpkins used to do best.

Mosh-pit favourites like the anarchic Quiet with it's chorus of guitar wails, the beat-heavy Silverf**k (no, I don't get "it" either), the exuberant chorus of opener Cherub Rock ("let, let me out") and the grunge/pop delights of both Hummer and Rocket sound exhilerating, to say the least. The guitars areon overdrive, and the effects pedals are put to good use and instead of mosher after mosher, Corgan implements melody and several strokes of inventive genius. The best example of this is on Rocket. Starting out soothingly with a picked, distorted guitar riff, and thenfurther dabbling with electronica later on into the song, suddenly mid-way the song cools do
wn and then starts to gear up. The pace quickens, the guitars speed up, the bass lines become fatter until at the end, everything goes absolutely crazy with the guitars all over the place, seeminlgy on fire with energy and then everything crashes out... like a rocket launching. What a sweet end joke!

The quieter moments however, arguably pack in the larger emotional punch. Disarm's lovely chorus of bell-chimes and synthesisers, Soma's lavish melody recalls a person going to sleep while ender Luna's crying plea for "one more song" is one of the finest break up statements made in rock...ever. It continues "what sunshine do you bring baby, who writes wrong, i'll sing for you, if you want me to, i'll give to you, it's a chance i should take, and it's a chance i'll break". It's been known to make grown men cry and become weak at the knees.

But in my opinon, the best songs lie in the ones that mix the quiet and loud elements perfectly, like the classic lighters-aloft ballad Mayonnaise that is OK to sing along to, the ethereal verses of Today that morphs into an overdriven gothic chorus of "I wanted more than I could ever get" but the album's best song, by leaps and gallons, is Geek U.S.A.

Starting with an undeniably metal riff and shouted vocals, it harks back to the confrontational style of AC/DC (Highway To Hell) and the song is backed by a fast drum beat that's relentless with a poppy chorus and a wave of guitar solos then after the second verse, it all goes quiet and cools down for a subdued section with a heart-wrenchingly beautiful melody as Corgan blabbers on about siamese twins. In a heartbeat, the song went from gut-busting to heart-melting and then back to an epical, collossal chorus and then more gut-busting riff-mania. But thtat break, has to be one of the most powerful moments in music I have heard... ever.

So I think you get my jist here, this can o
nly be described as a seminal classic, owned by many and is the best place to start with the Smashing Pumpkins. Although Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is the sprawling epical masterpiece, Siamese Dream will always be the musical classic. It can noly be described as other-worldy and comes very highly recommended from this reviewer.

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MakeMeOver

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