The World Is A Dracula - Two
A Smashing Pumpkins Album Review/Concert Research Series
Teargarden By Kaleidyscope
If there’s one thing that I can relate to Bill Pumpkin about, it’s starting an ambitious project and then failing to finish it... Jimmy Chamberlin had just quit the newly reformed Pumpkins, and so now Bill was truly flying solo with no artifice that this was, ultimately, a solo project with hired guns backing him.
What started as an intended 44 song exploration of the Tarot yielded two free-to-download EPs (plus two orphan tracks) and two full-length albums. I feel this is a largely forgotten period in the band’s catalog, and I don’t think I’ve really listened to this stuff more than one or two times. And I know I’ve never listened to it as one large, singular piece.
Volume 1: Songs For A Sailor
Song For A Son - Epic, classic rock vibes. Some good guitar. “I am one of many” lyric could be a reference to the song “I Am One” from the first album.
Widow Wake My Mind - A promising intro riff falling away to a keyboard driven, flower-power classic rock groove. Goes on almost too long.
A Stitch In Time - Sounds a lot more like it fits into the “Pumpkin Sound.” This could have been an Adore era outtake.
Astral Planes - Oh, this song could go so much harder. If they gave this one a chance live beyond the one year they were playing it, I think this could be a secret weapon.
Volume 2: The Solstice Bare
The Fellowship - I know this one was on the soundtrack to the Vampire Diaries TV show. Synth arpeggio and dynamic shifts that harken back to the Machina era sound. If Jimmy was drumming, this songs could have more beef to it.
Freak - Oh the fuzz! The right blend of rock and pop and edge — I fucking wish this song was still in rotation. A highlight from this era, for sure.
Tom Tom - A portent of where the Pumpkin sound would lead. Very middle-of-the-road. Nothing stand-out about it.
Spangled - A Beatles pastiche. Everybody does one at some point, right?
Volume 3: *abandoned
Lightning Strikes - More meandering than epic. If it weren’t as busy as it is structurally, it would probably be more impactful. Just a little editing could have gone a long way.
Owata - The title is like saying: “Oh what a.” Kinda reminds me of Untitled. They share a vibe, in my opinion. Pretty good.
Oceania
Quasar - Oh, I didn’t know they were just gonna start right in with the rawk. Easy to overlook the religiosity in they lyrics if you’re just rocking out.
Panopticon - Starts off sounding similar to the previous song. Ends up going in a more soaring direction. A hopeful heart at the core of this one.
The Celestials - This song is all over the place. It builds, reaches a peak, drops down to a weird part, then jumps back up, but some of the teeth are gone from that stopping short and bashing your face into the steering wheel like that.
Violet Rays - Not much stands out in this song. The epitome of an Album Track. Would be shocked if this was in anyone’s top 50 Pumpkins Songs.
My Love Is Winter - Kinda bland. Keyboards popping in to try to add some classic rock flavor, but it’s all just meh.
One Diamond, One Heart - More programmed synth arpeggios. It’s at about this point that I’m starting to think that the strong, hard rocking stuff in the beginning wasn’t an indication of what the rest of the album is going to be like. The chorus almost gets to soaring altitude, but there’s not enough runway for it to take off.
Pinwheels - Synth programming. Almost two and a half minutes of build up like there’s gonna be something epic, but then just some acoustic song that could have maybe made more of an impact if it were allowed to stand on its own.
Oceania - The nine minute epic of the album... Not really a rock freak-out. Meandering for the first half, then the second part the drums kick in for a dark Machina vibe. And it just fades out without a resolution.
Pale Horse - The “Thorazine” song. A song about his late mother. I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff from Bill.
The Chimera - Here we go...? An actual rawker? This has the tinge of “classic” Pumpkins, but with the modern sort-of optimism Bill developed in the 2.0 era. This is an actual good one! Bring it back!
Glissandra - Pretty solid Album Track. Reminds me a bit of the Pearl Jam song “Army Reserve.”
Inkless - “Plume” vibes, right off the bat. Chorus loses me, though. Solidly okay.
Wildflower - Synth closer. Reminds me of Bill’s solo album, The Future Embrace. A droning sort of meditation.
Monuments To An Elegy
Tiberius - Hey, the Pumpkins wrote a Weezer song! I don’t really know what to make of this song. “It goes” pretty hard, but the metal bridge gets a little too Prog, but not like modern metal prog (Mastodon, Baroness).
Being Beige - This song is a grower. “The world’s on fire” hits a little different now than it probably did in 2014 when it came out, unless you’re one of those people that became deranged while Obama was President.
Anaise! - There’s a classic rock song that has this same bass intro and I can’t figure out what it is! Fuck, this is going to bug the shit outta me. Starts with promise, but doesn’t close the deal.
One And All (We Are) - Oh shit! Here we fucking go! “The Viper” vibes, hell yeah. The post-chorus figure would be more impactful if it was only played once and didn’t repeat that first time it’s played.
Run2Me - Synth arpeggios are back. Honestly don’t think I need to listen to this more than the once I’ve given it right now. The only song I’ve given One Star to out of all these songs, so far.
Drum + Fife - I like the little flute/fife part. I feel like this song thinks it’s harder than it is. It’s a’ight, dawg.
Monuments - The synths undercut the power of the drums and guitar. Then that pre-chorus — yikes! More isn’t always more, Bill.
Dorian - Drum machine and synths. Lots of solo album tones and vibes. It feels like it would have fit better on that album than as a Pumpkins song. Was Tommy Lee even around for this song?
Anti-Hero - Sounds like a The Cars inspired pop-rock song with some of the good ol’ fashioned Pumpkins stank on it. I can see how people think of Monuments as one of the more rawk Pumpkins 2.0 albums, but there’s some selective amnesia going on in the second half of this, though.
Now onto the Shiny And Oh So Bright albums with the returns of not only Jimmy Chamberlin on drums, but also James Iha! Are we now in the Pumpkins 3.0 era? Will there be less synth (not a chance)? Can I think of a third question?
-bcp