The Smashing Pumpkins is choosing to go the way of Green Day, and making a rock opera in a new style. Perhaps a befitting ending to a famed band. There’s just one teensy… actually, giant glaring problem with the band.
And that problem is Billy Corgan.
If you had asked me this question just a couple of years ago, I would not have been this harsh. I have listened to their stuff from the 90s plenty of times before, and while I was more partial to the 90s sound of Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, and The Goo Goo Dolls, without a shadow of a doubt, their cover of “Landslide” is one of my favorite acoustic guitar songs ever recorded. There’s plenty of appeal to Corgan’s voice, from the soft twangy whispers to the raspy yell-singing he displays on tracks like the grunge classic “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.” As well as in the range and depth of his musical endeavors!
Everyone who knows Smashing Pumpkins probably knows them for their experimental grunge album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, a brave foray ranging from hard rock to soft alternative 90s pop. So when I saw ATUM (pronounced “autumn”) on Spotify, with an abstract glossy blue album cover purporting itself to be a sequel to the album, I checked it out with enthusiasm. To my surprise, I was greeted to an instrumental track that sounded straight out of an 80’s film. A gong noise, the slow, delicate “bwong” noise of the synth, and an explosive dive into a guitar solo, complete with piano counterpoint, and I was hooked, hungry for more!
And then it came to “Butterfly Suite,” and I was shocked and appalled. Billy Corgan’s harsh, trill voice, autotuned, over a synth pop track? I couldn’t possibly see how these two could connect. Every way he pronounces his vowels on “it’s morning to good morning” on the chorus just felt wrong. And from there, it just got stranger. The next song, “The Good in Goodbye,” we trade synths for rock-heavy guitar, but still not a thing like you’d find on their older work. But this set a pattern for the rest of the album; synth pop, then rock, synth pop, then rock. And despite it all, it seems to be so underwhelming, after such a strong opener. The most egregious offender of this inconsistency is the song “Hooray!,” which sounds like it was made with kids in mind as the target audience. Despite it being cheesy, it isn’t even terrible – but it makes me question what Billy Corgan’s vision was when he put together this album.
And, surprise, surprise – making more music didn’t help with the cohesion in the slightest. In Act II, the first two tracks, “Avalanche” and “Empires” evoke the feeling of a progressive rock album, but cheesier, and the rest of the tracks feel like songs that would fit in a video game like Terraria. Until you get to “Beguiled,” which quite literally sounds like Smashing Pumpkins’ hard rock take on “Under Pressure.”
At this point, I think I’ve described the weirdness as much as I can stand. My conclusion is that if you’re a die-hard Smashing Pumpkins fan, you might like this album. For anyone who prefers the nineties version of the band, this is your warning not to touch this album. The first track is all I can recommend if you want something that isn’t mediocre. Parents, your kid will probably like “Hooray!” but that’s all I can promise. Sorry to disappoint. I’m gonna have to give this album a 2/10. Anything after the first track is, at best, mediocre. And while I admit I’m a bit of a music snob, in my opinion, it’s not worth your time. Tune in next time for a review that you R&B fans out there will really get a kick out of!
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