Smashing Pumpkins- Oceania

[Von Schloopen]

Finishing my second run thru. B+ album. Would've been perfect after "Machina." A far more thought out album than the horrid "Zeitgeist." It has none of the unfocused aggression that made that record such a chore. That record contained too much over the top rock that went nowhere. This one doesn't. It's deceptively mellow. With it's necessary monster moments.

The highlights-

Celestials- synthy and acoustic. Running through a lot of chord changes. It starts to get a little pointed, with a bouncy little bass line, until it just rips open. Wide open, with the requesite distortion and guitar histrionics. But he never abandons the song for wanking.

Pinwheels- beautiful. A wonderful repetative key noodle flows into a super 70s guitar riff, and just when I think it's gonna explode, it goes acoustic with a nice vocal melody.

Oceania- The 9 minute one. Several segments, The first being an "Adore" styled moper. But with ascending guitars. It open up a bit, I'm kinda expecting a "Silverfuck" jam, but it goes left turn into toy pianos and acoustic guitars. A campfire tune. Billy isn't annoying me. Then it gets funky. Suddenly Adam and Larry circa 1985 are in the band, then there's a Edge style solo and indulgent guitar outro. 9 go by like 5.

The Chimera- Glorious riff pop/rock. It's actually a very welcome sound. Most of the album isn't this, which makes this so nice. Reminding me of "Rocket", but faster.

Inkless- Sludgy riff rock, with a fine sense of melody. Doubled guitars, and nice backing vocals. Up. I'm liking this new band.

Nice record. It's got some sun in it, and it reveals it in a nice way. Good flow. Can't really point to a bad track. It holds up as an album.

 

[djerdap]

Couldn't even finish it. I'll try again though some day. Maybe.

 

[cobl04]

They're playing it in full live.

 

[The Sad Punk]

Might give it a shot, though the single - whichever one that was - had no lasting effect on me whatsoever.

 

[mikal]

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I actually enjoyed the album a little bit.

 

[trevgreg]

Verdict's still out, but there's a few songs on there that I enjoyed. One Diamond, One Heart is really good too.

 

[Catman]

Just listened to it - great album! And I'm not just saying this because of low expectations - I was actually cautiously optimistic, and it certainly surpassed whatever I was expecting. Certainly in my top 5 of the year so far

 

[theedgeu2]

I've got it but I haven't listened to it all the way through from start to finish yet. I have listened to a couple songs off this when they pop up on shuffle mode. I think my favorite (from what I've heard so far) is Violet Rays. I really like that floating keyboard riff in that song. I'll prob sit around and listen to it tonight.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

If you're a Pumpkins fan, you'll generally like this. It's not great or anything and the last half kind of drags, but it is quite good at mimicking their classic sound while a few of the tracks (especially "Pinwheels") are definitely noteworthy and stand up among their best.