For all the criticisms levied on head Pumpkin Billy Corgan, one thing he can't be accused of is being narrow in his artistic vision. On the breakthrough SIAMESE DREAM, he and co-producer Butch Vig built a landscape of layered, corrosive guitars that shimmered brighter with each additional glance. On MELLON COLLIE AND THE INFINITE SADNESS, Corgan turns his eye to the dreariness of modern existence and comes up with a broad alterna-rock opus that plays out like an offspring of Roger Waters and Kurt Cobain--verbose and angst-ridden, bleak in its view, cathartic in nature.
With its two distinctly titled song-cycles and overture-like title track, there is no doubt that MELLON COLLIE is meant to be approached as a concept album, and Corgan's lyrical musings only reiterate the point. The songs explore alienation in the physical and spiritual worlds, generally concluding that it can seldom be overcome. Only the early "Tonight, Tonight" offers a glimmer of hope ("believe that life can change, that you're not stuck in vain"), on the wings of a soaring, string-laden production. Far more constant are spiritually depleting images of "the world [as a] vampire, sent to drain" ("Bullet With Butterfly Wings"), of love as "suicide" ("Bodies'") and of heaven's unresponsiveness ("Zero").
The constant din of guitars that illuminated GISH and SIAMESE DREAM has been replaced with a varied sonic palette that reflects MELLON COLLIE's operatic nature. Piano interludes connect the opening title track and the closing "Farewell And Goodnight"; harps, harpsichords and other heavenly sounds trim "Cupid De Locke"; synthetic, Cars-like drums and a general faux-New Wave feel spur on "1979"; and "X.Y.U." explodes with distorted guitar wallops and yelped vocals that scream post-modern confusion. The 28 tracks are as motley and disconcerting as the world they describe, and MELLON COLLIE is a dispiriting glimpse from the eyes of a man whose last vestiges of hope seem lost.
Smashing Pumpkins: Billy Corgan, James Iha, D'Arcy, Jimmy Chamberlin.
"Bullet With Butterfly Wings" won a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. Smashing Pumpkins were nominated for five additional 1997 Grammys for MELLON COLLIE AND THE INFINITE SADNESS. The album was nominated for Album Of The Year and Best Alternative Music Performance; "1979" was nominated for Record Of The Year and Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal; and the title track was nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
- Format: Vinyl
- Genre: Rock, Alternative
- Limited Edition Box Set
- Remastered. 180 Gram
- Remember, for our lowest prices, always order directly from Joco Records!
TRACKS
Dawn To Dusk
A1 Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
A2 Tonight, Tonight
A3 Jellybelly
A4 Zero
B1 Here Is No Why
B2 Bullet With Butterfly Wings
B3 To Forgive
C1 Fuck You (An Ode To No One)
C2 Love
C3 Cupid De Locke
C4 Galapogos
D1 Muzzle
D2 Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans
D3 Take Me Down
Twilight To Starlight
E1 Where Boys Fear To Tread
E2 Bodies
E3 Thirty-Three
E4 In The Arms Of Sleep
F1 1979
F2 Tales Of A Scorched Earth
F3 Thru The Eyes Of Ruby
G1 Stumbleine
G2 X.Y.U.
G3 We Only Come Out At Night
G4 Beautiful
H1 Lily (My One And Only)
H2 By Starlight
H3 Farewell And Goodnight
