The World Is A Dracula - Four
A Smashing Pumpkins Album Review/Concert Research Series
ATUM (A Rock Opera In Three Acts)
I listened to the podcast Bill Pumpkin made to promote/explain the concept of this album, and he claims that this is the third part of a trilogy of albums that started with Mellon Collie… and continued onto Machina…, but I have a hard time believing that, because: A) There wasn’t really any kind of over arching narrative or story within the songs of Mellon Collie1, and B) That claim is nothing but a marketing gimmick to try to get people who have not listened to them since the 90s to listen to this album.
Now, I will say: Knowing the story does add something to enjoying this album2, but the songs do have to be able to stand on their own as actual songs in order to make a meaningful impact on the Pumpkins catalogue. If you want to know the full story of the album, you can visit the SPCodex.
But here’s as simple a synopsis as I can make...
It’s the future. Shiny was the kid Zero (from the song on “Mellon Collie”) who became the rock star Glass (from the album “Machina”), and was shot into space and had all knowledge of him erased by a mysterious, shady group. But there was a girl that found out about him from hackers on the internet, and went to space to try to find him.
Shiny ends up coming back to Earth. There’s a robot(?) and two people from the hacker group that try to remind the world about Shiny. The shady group wants to get to Shiny and so do the two hackers. They both sort of get to him and there’s a stand-off.
One of the hackers tries to shoot Shiny, but gets someone else, instead. Then Shiny just ends up going back to space, because that girl that went to space to try to find Shiny — remember her? — she’s going to fly into the Sun, and he’s going to save her.
That’s the broadest of strokes that I can give from what I half remember.
Act One
ATUM - Instrumental in the vein of the title track from Mellon Collie… and “Le Deux Machina” from Machina…, at least in the sense that it is supposed to be an overture. Opening with synths and then transitioning into a prog/classic rock thesis statement.
Butterfly Suite - I’m getting vibes of “Pretty, Pretty Star” from Bill’s TheFutureEmbrace solo album. And then guitars blast in! Poppy and quirky. This is a good one.
The Good In Goodbye - That beeping tricked me — I thought there was something going on in my house. Pretty metal, but it’s just missing something. Maybe it’s the lyrics not really fitting with the music?
Embracer - Oh god, those synths. More is More track.
With Ado I Do - This one feels like a solo Bill joint, not The Smashing Pumpkins (although at this point, I don’t even know why there would be a difference).
Hooligan - Those guitars almost tricked me, but the synths snapped me out of it. Too all over the place.
Steps In Time - Oh shit! This one, on the other hand — this song fucks. The drums are a little bland and lifeless for the verses, et cetera, but this has a great Pumpkins vibe.
Where Rain Must Fall - Almost too twee, but not horrible. At least the production isn’t making me roll my eyes.
Beyond The Vale - Guitars are back, but the drums are, what, sampled? Did Jimmy just play a little bit for each song, and then Bill looped it? If the song had more swing and life to it, it would be better.
Hooray! - This one is freaked everyone out when it first came out on Bill’s podcast, but I fuck with this wacky shit! A robot circus hoedown that comes out of nowhere and sounds like nothing else Bill has done. If you listened to my Better Band episodes where I covered some of the weird Pearl Jam songs, you might have had a hint that I would gravitate toward this one. It’s an oddity, for sure, but the song is not bad! That’s my hot take...
The Gold Mask - This is an okay pop song. Not quite a Pumpkins song, but it’s only two or three degrees off. I can see the faded red string that’s hanging from this song on the cork board and the push pin it was attached to.
Act Two
Avalanche - A little minute-and-a-half long intro on this one. The beginning guitar part is good, but then the synths come in. They’re fighting each other. The vocal melody and lyrics are pretty good, but if the synths were just scaled back, this would be a lot more solid than it is.
Empires - I think this was one of the singles. Oh, the bridge on this one kicks it up a notch! Okay, this one is the first Five Star I’m giving on this album.
Neophyte - Another More is More, especially when the song doesn’t really go anywhere — there’s no twists or turns. Just a car ride with the painted scenery on a canvas loop.
Moss - Oh shit! Is there “meowing?” This one is a banger.
Night Waves - And then here’s a synth arpeggio thing to follow that up. Okay pop. Some interesting drum parts. I think it’s growing on me as it gets toward the end.
Space Age - This has a Pumpkins ballad underneath the production caked on top. Like the direction they could have gone after Adore in a parallel universe. Pretty okay.
Every Morning - I don’t know if the Stockholm Syndrome is kicking in3, but I think I like this song...? I can feel the Pumpkins Vibe in this one, even though it has the synths and stuff.
To The Grays - I think this one has more guitars than it seems. Pop. This one is trying to sneak up behind me. I think this one is another one that’s so close to being a good one.
Beguiled - I swear I wrote a guitar riff years ago that’s almost exactly like this, and it pisses me off to no end, because this is better than I could have made it. The “Return the faith” line is pretty “meh,” but the rest of the song whips ass!
The Culling - This one isn’t a wacky one, but it is another outlier like “Hooray!” Prog rock breakdown and an overall (almost) epic-ness to it. I’m pleasantly surprised how much this doesn’t suck like Cyr does.
Springtimes - The shift to the guitar part midway is throwing me off, because it rules. It started as a sort of forgettable synth diddy, but then POW! If the end part was anything other than a corny sounding synth, I would have bought into this one 100%.
Act Three
Sojourner - The chorus melody sounds familiar, but I can’t place it. This is gonna bug the shit out of me... It’s almost “By Starlight,” but I know there is something else I’m thinking of. Pretty catchy, but otherwise pretty mid.
That Which Animates The Spirit - This song thinks it’s harder than it is — like when someone tells you they listen to metal and their favorite band is Ghost. The teeth this song has are plastic vampire fangs.
The Canary Trainer - Bland and indistinguishable from several other songs that sound just like this. Kinda disappointed from how the second act was setting me up for this maybe being a really good album on the whole.
Pacer - Okay, the ping-ponging chorus vocals is kinda cool. The slow-down kills the momentum though, and I don’t even know how the lyrics are supposed to fit into the narrative.
In Lieu Of Failure - Here’s some rawk. The nonsense lyrics kinda feel like Bill taking the piss. Like he knows the Old Pumpkin Heads just want him to write songs like he used to, and then gives them this, because he knows they’ll eat it up with a spoon even though it’s just empty calories.
Cenotaph - The title makes me think about the Cenobites from the Hellraiser movies (even though I’ve never seen any of them, 'cause when I was a kid in the 80s/90s, all those horror movies scared the ever-loving shit outta me). But in this song, the frightening part is how much better this song could have been without those damn synths!
Harmageddon - Sounds like an interpolation of “X.Y.U.” a little. The quantized drums don’t give this song much room to breathe. And what the hell is with that weak-ass drum fill after the first chorus? Pretty fucking legit guitar solo though. This would rule to see live.
Fireflies - This one has something to it that’s growing on me. Maybe it’s the Ebows? This is a pretty good one. The lyrics can stand on their own outside of the story, too.
Intergalactic - Interesting is maybe all I can say about this. The longest track on the album — an epic two part setup for the ending of the album and rock opera. Some crappy synth sounds, but a good track within the context of the whole thing. I don’t think it can really exist outside of this context, however.
Spellbinding - The soaring rock ending (with obligatory, overdone synths). I think this one was a single, too. I think I gotta give it up for this one, even though I should know better. It’s just catchy as all hell.
Of Wings - Of course, you gotta end everything with a whole bunch of synths, but otherwise it’s a nice ending. And of course, Bill has to bring Jesus into the whole thing, ‘cause that’s his M.O. Except for the synths, this has a very Mellon Collie vibe, but I don’t think it can really stand on its own outside of this album.
So, out of the 33 track on this album, I would say that 13 were pretty good. That’s over a third... 12 were just okay. Overall it’s more positive than negative, which when you’re throwing so many songs against the wall, there’s bound to be some that’ll stick. Bill has always played the numbers game...
Now, since I started this little exercise, there has actually been another Smashing Pumpkins album that has come out! And with the concert this weekend, I don’t think I’ll be able to get that written up before then.
But in the spirit of completion, I’ll give my album rundown next week along with what I thought of the show. That seems like a good way to wrap this whole thing up, right?
-bcp
I read somewhere (and I of course, can’t find where I read it, so take this with a grain of salt … and lime … and tequila … and triple sec) that Mellon Collie was a reaction to Bill’s persistent feelings of being overlooked as the genius he was, in favor of the Seattle “grunge” bands. And that this was his sort of: Fuck you! You like Grunge? You want Grunge? Well, I’ll give you the most Grunge Album there is!
And so he made a double album containing the totality of what the first half of the 90s rock milieu was at that point — grunge, alternative, electronic, quirky.
Also being a little buzzed.
Or something else is kicking in.