Smashing Pumpkins - "Zeitgeist"

[justin92]

Alright. I wrote a review earlier but when i clicked submit my computer shut down randomly. Hopefully it doesnt happen this time.

Well, the Pumpkins are back, after 7 years. Actually, its just Billy and Jimmy. Thankfully though, this album sounds more like the Pumpkins than either of their solo albums or Zwan.

That being said, its definitely different. Most like Machina i guess. The guitar is more muddy, and it has a modern feel. My hopes were pretty high for the SP return, but it doesnt sound much like their old stuff. The lyrics arent as genius as they used to be either.

The album took some getting used to. At first it was, eh.. but it grows on you. Theres some energetic songs, some soft ones, and some in between.

Check the album out. It's only 10 bucks at Target, so why not. Overall, a good album. Not great, but definitely not bad. Hopefully SP will continue to make music. The Gish of the next decade? Who knows.

[Hastyl3]

I enjoyed most of the songs. Unfortunately I did it the oppposite way of how Billy Corgan said it at Live Earth. Neverlost was a brilliant song. I also loved (Come On) Lets Go, Tarantula, and you know that scene in Transformers where they're racing to get to I think it was Startskream or Blackout that song is Doomsday Clock, I love it. Overall I'd give the album 8.35/10. Keep up the good work Billy and Jimmy... Wait... Double Dragon lol.

[Eman311]

Its a very solid album. I'd give it an 8/10

[travmeatwad]

Thanks guys.. I'm not worried about picking it up anymore..

I've heard some negative things and wasn't sure if I should get it.. but now I definitely will... eventually.. I need to save up for RB first.. so it'll be a while until I get this CD.

[sweetlips]

Yep, I knew the album couldn't meet my grandiose expectations, but it is still pretty good. It isn't a return to GISH/SD era, like I'd hoped, but more of a continuation of Machina/Zwan while adding a heavier almost rock opera tone to their sound, which isn't bad at all, and the album does grow on you.

Not to say the album is by any means perfect. I can't even listen to "For God and Country", (shoulda been a b-side)

"United States" stands out as the album highlight, in my opinion. Not only is it twice as long as the other tracks, it also seems to drive the feel of the album more than the rest of the songs put together. It must be a fun one to listen to at their live shows.

Here's to hoping they hold it together and make more space rock.

[_Five_]

I've listened to it a few times now but it's all one big thing, I can't distinguish anything from memory yet. The only songs that stood out for me are the first few ones, I like Doomsday Clock.

As has been said, they sound more muddy, more heavy rock now, which I enjoy. Machina had its good moments, but overall I didn't like it as much as their other stuff, so I'm glad they picked up a new direction. And I'm also very glad they don't suck with their comeback. ;-)

I agree: the album is not outstanding but not bad either. Enjoyable background music.

[battle_axe_of_doom]

didn't like this album, but then again i never really cared for the pumpkins. good band i guess :\

[johnyringo04]

i really liked. good album 8/10.

[logicalnoise]

so which one of the 4 different special editions did you guys buy?

[Corvian]

Bought all of them

But hey, I am REALLY happy that Cherub Rock is in Rock Band. Thanks Harmonix!

[GrenadeJumper]

After seeing them at Live Earth, I will never buy one of their albums.

[Desensitized]

After seeing them at Live Earth, I will never buy one of their albums.
Hmm? What happened at Live Earth?

[battle_axe_of_doom]

i'm guessing he thought they sucked. they're a good band, nothing special to be honest. this new album sucked too. not really pure suckage, but with all the hype surrounding it i found it rather lackluster

[GrenadeJumper]

Basically, at live earth a bunch of good bands played, and then smashing pumpkins came on. They were loud and obnoxious. I couldn't make out any particular guitar part or hear the vocals. It all basically sounded like jumbled noise. All the drunk guys behind me seemed to love it though. Just. Terrible.

[SteppinRazor]

Tarantula and Doomsday Clock are definanlty worth a download, I felt half this album wasn't my kind of thing, and half of it was pretty decent with two stand-out tracks.

If you're a fan, buy the album. If you just kinda liked Zero and Bullet With Butterfly Wings, and you miss the music the industry made in the 90s, stick to just getting Tarantula and Doomsday Clock.

[RedPyramidSH]

As a big fan of SP I was pretty damn let down by this album. The guitar and drums are on point but little else is. Billy sounds like he doesn't give a **** (even by normal Billy Corgan standards) and the lyrics are some lame political statement about the same thing every other band is whining about. The lame sing-songy choruses that are in every song are pretty disappointing to hear, too.

I've said it before but I really hope this is intentionally bad in order to convince James and D'Arcy to come back since they miffed his ad in the tribune last year.

[DasKonstruct]

I thought the album was lackluster through and through. The band needs to break up and just move in their own respective paths. No passion is left

[Fathoms]

A couple comments:

- Zeitgeist isn't a political record (here's a challange, find me a single political statement on the entire record and I'll eat my words). Sure, it has plenty of the iconographies of politics plastered throughout the artwork, and song titles like United States, and For God and Country may lead you to think Billy's trying to make a political statement, but the record is strictly a commentary on the toll the sociopolitical landscape in the States takes on the individual. As usual, Corgan uses vague universal terms to get his message across. He's certainly not preaching or capitalizing on a trend. The artwork of the record is mostly to do with how the symbols of the modern day have radically shifted from the old ones (say, the Statue of Liberty holding up a torch has been replaced by the image of Paris Hilton holding up a miniature dog) and what that has to say about how media-driven culture has radically shifted the common symbolic archetypes. The concept of impermanance has always been a theme of Corgans songwriting, and Neverlost and Pomp and Circumstances are two examples of how those sentiments are still at the forefront of his mind, he's merely talking about these things in direct reference to the world he lives in, and that we all live in.

In the post-9/11 days, Billy was completely sucked into the fear-mongering of the times... Afraid to fly, afraid for the country, totally paronoid about everything that was happening in the world. With that in mind, the song "United States" is about taking back the real estate of your own consciousness from media personalities, about uniting your fractured states of mind. In Billy's case, he simply chose to turn the television off and marvel at how over time the fear and negatively of the "Zeitgeist" sort of fades off into memory. The "revolution" at the end of the day, is entirely personal.

-GrenadeJumper: Don't blame the band for the fact that the sound happened to be terrible for their set. I saw them play this on tour and they melted the audiences faces off. The emotional intensity isn't anything what it used to be, but the perfomances are steller, the setlists are constantly changing, the band revamps old songs to make them fresh again, and are constantly tooling up new ones. This isn't the nostalgic greatest hits tour Billy promised it wouldn't be, and while it may not be your cup of tea, the band doesn't deserve to be accused of resting on their laurels. Okay, I may be a die-hard, but I saw them in 2000 and thought they were very mediocre, and the critical/fan reviews for this tour have been largely very exceptional. Everyone I know who saw them when they passed through was glowing about it for weeks afterward.

-Zeitgeist isn't the album it should be, but it's important to rember that Corgan hasn't had major success in the mainstream since Mellon Collie. It was important to show that he could both still bring a big rock punch to the table, as well as write powerful hooks that would grab peoples attention. I think songs 1-7 are mostly successful in what they set out to do, however the record suffers from the fact that the vocals lack emotion and are obnoxiously high in the mix for the quiter songs, the lyrical content is often too vague and repetitive, and Doomsday Clock is the worst opener on a Pumpkins record yet, Starz has terrible production too. There are still some quite exceptional moments throughout however. 7 Shades of Black, Tarantula, United States, and Pomp and Circumstances are all very good. I'm hoping the new members will have some imput into the next record, and it appears they will, because traditionally the role of non Billy/Jimmy Pumpkin members in the studio has always had more to do with taste than talent. Which is an underrated asset.

[AMnOesIa-drummer]

It was Ok.