It's not everyday where a band will release an expansive, ambitious, double CD set and have that be the album that thrusts them into the music industry stratosphere in terms of album sales. To be sure, this practice happened in the 1970s an awful lot (just ask the Who or Pink Floyd), but for it to happen in the mid 90s was nothing short of a miracle.

But for Smashing Pumpkins, this is exactly what happened. No doubt helped by the fact that their Siamese Dream album had gone multi-platinum, the band's 2 disc Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness can be both invigorating and frustrating. Such is the life of double albums. With that being said, I don't truly consider this set a "classic," as many of my colleagues do. Even just a year ago, I probably would've agreed with them. But my opinion on it has changed over the last year, for reasons I'll get into throughout this review. I consider this to be a very good album, but one that comes much closer to being 3 stars than many lead you to believe.

The set is essentially two albums, each constructed and ordered for what one would hope is the maximum listenting experience. The first disk, subtitled Dawn to Dusk, begins with a dark tinge. The title track works as an intro to the nearly two hours of music that appears over the course of the two discs. While the piece is ok, it's nothing I want to listen to over and over again. That piece leads into the orchestrally driven Tonight, Tonight, which perhaps more than any other song, pushed this album into the sales stratosphere. I've never been a big fan of the song, despite its solid lyrics. For me, the song just didn't work, it felt too big, when a simple, understated ballad may have captured the grace of the song much better.

Things finally ramp up in classic Pumpkins style with Jellybelly, which would've made a much better single than either of the two rockers the band did pick. This song rocks, no two ways about it, and Corgan manages to make the song feel cathartic, while drummer Jimmy Chamberlain lays down his usual excellent fills.

The two rocking singles from the first disc, Zero and Bullet With Butterfly Wings, are actually rather over-rated in this writer's opinion. Zero has a decent riff, but it feels over-produced. In addition, Corgan's voice, an acquired taste as is, is ultra annoying here. Meanwhile, Bullet With Butterfly Wings features some nice tom tom work from Chamberlain, but little else captures my imagination. I find the chorus ("Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage") to not be nearly the hook everyone seems to think it is. The song almost saves itself on the bridge, which truly rocks, but the rest of the song bores me.

I find that other songs on the disc do work quite well. The slow, tense buildup on F*ck You (And Ode to No One) is solid, and the release is worth the short wait. The electronic sounding Love comes off as pretentious to some, but if anything, it reveals Corgan's interest in electronic music, something that would be explored in greater detail on the next record the band would do, Adore. And Muzzle, a classic Pumpkins anthem if there ever was one, takes the cake as the best song on the first disc. How this song was never released as a single is beyond my comprehension, and it stands as probably one of the most over-looked songs on the entire record.

The second disc, subtitled Twilight to Starlight, begins just the opposite way of how the first disc begins. Where Boys Fear to Tread offers some intrumental soundchecking, before the main riff comes out and the song builds slowly. Personally, I've always wished this song had more of a raw, squealing edge to it. Bodies, in that respect, works better. It has more of an edge to it, and the chorus has a terrific hook that helps the song retain that edge, while being catchy enough to draw listeners in.

Only two songs from this disc were released as singles. Thirty-Three sounds a little too self important, though I really do like the dreamy quality of the music. But there can be no more over-rated track from this entire two disc collection than 1979, which helped the band cross over to adult top 40 stations. So many people seem to love this song, and for the life of me I can't understand why. The song doesn't have a good hook to it, and while Corgan's voice isn't nearly as obnoxious here as it is in other places on the record, I hardly consider that and that alone to make this a good song. The lyrics touch on many of the same themes Corgan hits throughout the record, themes that by the time you get to this point of the second disc, are old and boring.

Thankfully, the rockers help to save this disc as well. Tales of a Scorched Earth will no doubt annoy some people due not only to Corgan's ear splitting screams, but also the vocal effect put on. The song kicks major rocking a*s though, featuring a wall of feedback solo from guitarist James Iha that fits the song perfectly. X.Y.U. is another rocker that has a solid buildup while managing to not sound like five Pumpkins songs that came before it, an admitted problem for the band at times.

Corgan actually lets his sensitive side come out on Beautiful, a song that might take a few listens for you to appreciate, but it is a solid song that is a nice change of pace from the anger and depression found throughout the course of the record. Lily (My One and Only) is a playful bit of a song, while the closing duo of By Starlight and Farewell and Goodnight bring the album to a satisfying conclusion.

So what's the bottom line on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness? It isn't as good as people love to make it out to be. It feels bloated much too often, and had they picked say, the best 15 songs, and put out a single CD, they would've had a masterpiece on their hands. As it is though, it still isn't a bad record by any means. Siamese Dream is still the band's best record by far, but Mellon Collie has many highlights of its own. In addition, the second disc sets up what was to come on the Adore record quite nicely. It isn't as good as I previously might have said, but it's solid nonetheless. 3.5 stars.





Recommended: Yes