Review of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Rating:84)
Don't tell Smashing Pumpkins modern rock is a modest endeavor. The Chicago quartet hit big with its 1993 sophomore album, Siamese Dream, and now the band is thinking big. Real big. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is a sprawling, engaging 28-song album spread over two CDs. Bruce Springsteen and Guns N' Roses have previously released double compact discs, sort of: they opted for two separately sold CDs, avoiding the high price tag of a combined set. But the specially priced Mellon Collie may single-handedly redefine the term "double album" for the CD age.
Beyond commercial considerations, the sheer length of Mellon Collie also sets a new standard of expression. The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street, arguably the best double album ever, fits comfortably on a single CD. Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan and his mates indulge us with over two hours of new music. Pretentious? To a degree, but Mellon Collie supports the Pumpkins' bold ambitions, taking the conventions of the group's first two albums and nudging them in new directions. It isn't exactly Exile, on which every song was a distinct sonic adventure, but Mellon Collie does make a case for Corgan and the Pumpkins' ability to deliver an impressively large batch of winning songs. You want metal? Mellon Collie clocks in with the stomping "Here Is No Why," the tempo-shifting "X.Y.U.," and the industrial-tinged "Love." Punk? Try "Zero," "Fuck You (An Ode to No One)," or "Bodies." Pretty, string-laden love songs? The Pumpkins give you "Thirty-Three," "Lily (My One and Only)," and "To Forgive." Nine down, nineteen to go.
The songs that really soar are the ones that mix and match those elements. The first single, "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," flutters through moody, mid-tempo verses before rocking out in the choruses. "Galapogos" counterpoints sweet strings with dramatic bursts of guitar, while "1979" mines a surging, Sonic Youth-style groove propelled by Jimmy Chamberlain's hiccuping high-hat. Then there is the nine-minute opus, "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans," a mood-swinging epic with light polyrhythms that evoke a kind of watery atmosphere.
Speaking of moods, Corgan's fly around Mellon Collie like random bits of emotional shrapnel. On "Bodies," he laments that "Love is suicide"; one song later, in "Thirty-Three," he counters that "love can last forever." "In my mind I'm everyone," he declares in "Porcelina," but these songs clearly reflect Corgan's personal angst; it's not called The Infinite Sadness for nothing. Mellon Collie does end on a happy note: a pair of trippy, psychedelic love songs ("Beautiful" and "By Starlight") and the sweet lullaby "Farewell and Goodnight." Nit-picking Mellon Collie doesn't yield much; the occasional stumbles barely make a dent in its twenty-eight-song stride. Give the Pumpkins their due: they shoot big, and on Mellon Collie, they score. - Gary Graff
MTV Review of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
This is a big, fat, super-pretentious sonic monolith that just happens to be a sweet, superb masterwork. Anyone who thought that Corgan had plumbed the depths of his prepubescent angst on Siamese Dream will be pleasantly surprised. Corgan has many more skeletons, ghosts, bats and Godzillas in his closet -- and, boy, are they ugly.
But Mellon Collie also has a light side...and it has a classical side...and it has a '70s-rock side...and it has an industrial-gothic side ... and so on. The record is split into two halves: day ("Dawn to Dusk") and night ("Twilight to Starlight"). But that doesn't mean that this double header is divided into light and dark -- we all know that some of the ugliest things happen in broad daylight. The album's arena-rock throwaway, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," is just the first of a bunch of tailor-made-for-radio hits, but that's the kind of song that Corgan could dream up in his sleep. Smashing Pumpkins can do better than that, and they prove their breadth and scope with the cataclysmic rocker "X.Y.U.," the lovestruck "Thirty-Three" and the desperate clinging of "In The Arms of Sleep."
Track List:
DAWN TO DUSK:
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
TWILIGHT TO STARLIGHT:
where boys fear to tread
bodies
thirty-three
in the arms of sleep
1979
tales of a scorced 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