Soot and Stars
I AM SOOT!
The Smashing Pumpkins-Oceania
One can garner a lot just from looking at the cover of the new Smashing Pumpkins album. In it is a lone monument reaching skyward surrounded circled by the barren trees and dead, quiet space. It's not a grim scene. It's washed over in the most beautiful aqua blue, the band name and title centered and hovering proudly over the monument in a bolder wash of blue. It's an album that much like most of Billy's career represents a man who against the odds always wants to aim sky high in the grandest of oeuvres.
This is exactly the picture of where Billy is with his career. The angst has disappeared at perhaps the most sparsely lit point in his bands legacy. The world seems dead to a band that's always been about causing grandiose explosions with an underground spark. The leaves have fallen whether it be the change of the current musical landscape or withered fans that remained stationary in it's expectations. The Smashing Pumpkins have never been stationary and Billy's muse has never been more optimistic then it has right now. So before Billy deconstructs this monument to his bands legacy to arc in a completely different direction let's discuss the height it reaches.
The album starts out with a blast of defiance in Quasar as the band tries to cement it place in The Pumpkins and curbstomp your face against it with Siamese Dream heavy riffs. The fact that the album starts off with something so reminiscent of old Pumpkins style may be a sign of Billy slipping away from his convictions. In fact, I'll say right now this is the most homogenous effort I've ever heard from the band. Whether this is both Billy trying to prove he still has it or the band trying to prove they can fill those shoes is anyone's guess. One can't say it's missing the grandiose edge. Billy evokes God and the highest entities in the lyrics and chants a series of punctuated lines against the rocket fueled riffage and drums. Billy's vocals are weaker with age but he displays the most intensity he can muster despite. It's a huge swing that actually could pull even the jaded fan back in.
Quasar
The albums intensity bleeds into the next track, Panopticon, but wipes off the scorching sweat, steadies itself and let's you bask in the light. Billy knows he has the fan at this point and he mixes a riff that could come easily off of Mellon Collie and blends it with the optimism he's been trying to refine since Zwan. I believe lyrically this is a message to Billy's former fans who feel scorned because Billy grew out of the angsty stage. When Billy proclaims that "There's a sun that shines, There's a world that stares out of me" it's a declaration and the line "Don't make me suffer" definitely has a target. Between the kick of the opening track and Panopticons message Billy definitely came inspired and ready to fight. Within this world the title Panopticon makes sense as it's a circular prison in which the prisoner could be observed at all times. This is Billy's battle to break out of that prison when the fans chose to define what his baby, The Smashing Pumpkins, was and should now be!
Panopticon
To be continued.....
One can garner a lot just from looking at the cover of the new Smashing Pumpkins album. In it is a lone monument reaching skyward surrounded circled by the barren trees and dead, quiet space. It's not a grim scene. It's washed over in the most beautiful aqua blue, the band name and title centered and hovering proudly over the monument in a bolder wash of blue. It's an album that much like most of Billy's career represents a man who against the odds always wants to aim sky high in the grandest of oeuvres.
This is exactly the picture of where Billy is with his career. The angst has disappeared at perhaps the most sparsely lit point in his bands legacy. The world seems dead to a band that's always been about causing grandiose explosions with an underground spark. The leaves have fallen whether it be the change of the current musical landscape or withered fans that remained stationary in it's expectations. The Smashing Pumpkins have never been stationary and Billy's muse has never been more optimistic then it has right now. So before Billy deconstructs this monument to his bands legacy to arc in a completely different direction let's discuss the height it reaches.
The album starts out with a blast of defiance in Quasar as the band tries to cement it place in The Pumpkins and curbstomp your face against it with Siamese Dream heavy riffs. The fact that the album starts off with something so reminiscent of old Pumpkins style may be a sign of Billy slipping away from his convictions. In fact, I'll say right now this is the most homogenous effort I've ever heard from the band. Whether this is both Billy trying to prove he still has it or the band trying to prove they can fill those shoes is anyone's guess. One can't say it's missing the grandiose edge. Billy evokes God and the highest entities in the lyrics and chants a series of punctuated lines against the rocket fueled riffage and drums. Billy's vocals are weaker with age but he displays the most intensity he can muster despite. It's a huge swing that actually could pull even the jaded fan back in.
Quasar
The albums intensity bleeds into the next track, Panopticon, but wipes off the scorching sweat, steadies itself and let's you bask in the light. Billy knows he has the fan at this point and he mixes a riff that could come easily off of Mellon Collie and blends it with the optimism he's been trying to refine since Zwan. I believe lyrically this is a message to Billy's former fans who feel scorned because Billy grew out of the angsty stage. When Billy proclaims that "There's a sun that shines, There's a world that stares out of me" it's a declaration and the line "Don't make me suffer" definitely has a target. Between the kick of the opening track and Panopticons message Billy definitely came inspired and ready to fight. Within this world the title Panopticon makes sense as it's a circular prison in which the prisoner could be observed at all times. This is Billy's battle to break out of that prison when the fans chose to define what his baby, The Smashing Pumpkins, was and should now be!
Panopticon
To be continued.....
