The Smashing Pumpkins strive toward the Ultimate Rock record, the final soundtrack to an everyteen carnival of drugs (of opiate variety), sex, tawdry nightclub intrigue, more sex and spiritual redemption through thick shag layers of guitar. These are enormously ambitious goals, and ones in which arrogance and pretention are elemental parts of the Bacchanalian ritual, but this debut is built upon an altar of guitar leads, and every note's meant to take you higher. If you suspend your distrust of rock histrionics run amok, you'll be beguiled by the lengths they'll go to ensure maximum instrumental throb. Retro in the sense that `70s rockers were just as avid in their pursuit of the ideal rock dream-state, the Smashing Pumpkins have been blessed by the guitar goddess-leader Billy Corgan and James Iha rely upon a fuller, more lubricious orgy of overdubs than other bands can control. This oozing paste of flanged, fuzzed and otherwise distorted toolings keep the band from the Neanderthactics of Soundgarden and the overreaching artsiness of Jane's Addiction; Gish creeps close to the Screaming Trees' overtures to the electric absolute. The bummer in the Pumpkins' trip is when they get so dazzled by the voluptuousness of their mystic visions, they forget humor is needed to keep the intensity from growing stale. Even so, the Pumpkins have succeeded in making the most alluringly escapist record of the year. Top Cuts: the re-worked "Tristessa," "Rhinoceros," "Bury Me" and "Crush."
Track List:
I am one
Siva
Rinoceros
Bury Me
Crush
Suffer
Snail
Tristessa
Window Paine
Daydream