Pros: Overwhelming depth and visualisation which has transformed this into an epic experience
Cons: Too many ideas floating around dont get their chance to flourish when they should
The Bottom Line: It seems that this epic album will be remembered for a very long time to come as one of the more successful double albums, Best rock album of the 90's
bequietnddrive's Full Review: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smas...
The smashing pumpkins 10 year reign throughout the ninties can be said at least to be a very unique one with ever pretentious yet persistent and intelligent songwriter billy corgan always remaining to have a tight grip on the influence of the band, as he is the soul driving force for the songs, riffs and mood of these amazing opus albums that have won the hearts of many teenagers and adults alike. However the most memroable one (as well as the most ambitious and epic set ever) has to be the crown jewel centerpiece of their work that is Melloncollie and the Infinite Sadness.
The Smashing Pumpkins are: -
Billy Corgan: - Vocals, Guitar, piano
James Iha: - Guitars, vocals
Darcy: - Bass
Jimmy chamberlin: -Percussion
This grand set totals in at over 2 hours of music and 28 songs that seem to have come from simply out of the blue of corgan's vortex portal mind, i truly believe that his writers block shortly after the days of Siamese dream and conquering it has seemed to open the floodgates as if it were on his musical boundries and simply unleashed every single emotion possible, and i might add managed to record it in almost perfect detail, however during this portion of their (or his) career he came up with well over 60 independendant tracks, (talk about a creative buzz) and the other 28 tracks can be found on the ambitious The Aeroplane flies high box set which has the singles and their B-sides and covers which i own, however it is quite rare eseocially in England where I hail from, dont know how available it is in America.
THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME
Melloncollie was recorded in 1995 with producer flood at a fairly fast rate and I have also heard from certain sources that Corgan allowed the other band members more creative control which is unsurprising really considering The vastness of the project, even james iha who crafted songs from Siamese dream with them just to be cut out has some time to shine on closers of each album disc with the last song involving every band member in the grand closing song entitled farewell and goodnight.
The album is seperated into two discs each with distinct titles, which seem to give a Positive and negative or Sunlight and Darkness concept covering emotions of love, happiness, despair, anger, and pure rage, although Corgan states that it is not a concept album he cannot argue that the concept exists as just a huge collection of different memories and emotions. There are some serious mood swings found here that seem evident in some of the harder tracks which just goes to show that a versatile band the Smashing Pumpkins were.
First Disc Dawn to Dusk
The album begins off beautiful and tranquil with the instrumental title track Mellon Collie and Infinite sadness which Billy Corgan plays a harmaneous introduction to whats to come on the piano, this is supposed to signify the dawn of the day as someone is slowly awakening with the sun slowly creeping up gaining altitude making the day brighter, after almost 3 minutes of this soothing bed waker we are introduced to the first of the albums five hit singles the aptly named tonight tonight. It is the secnd song and their are no real guitars heard as this seems to be a song orchestrated with violins cellos and Corgans vocals and Darcy's bass and jimmys percussion.
TIME IS NEVER TIME AT ALL/ YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE WITHOUT LEAVING A PIECE OF YOU/
First hearing corgans lyrics you can see why the band has had so much success with their songwriting skills, he seems to be singing of a night to forget ones woes, regrets and pain and to just enjoy the night with a loved one ignorant of all the suffering they have had to endure, and if its going to happen it has to be tonight. Sweet and innocent childhood love
BELIEVE IN ME/BELIEVE BELIEVE
AND DO YOU BELIEVE THERE IS NOT A CHANCE TONIGHT
In the next song we see the pumpkins come back to form with what we love them for, straight up heavy rock with the appropriatley named jellybelly, Corgan has a talent with the electric guitar and it is evident in his riffs and solos epsecially the work in Siamese dream with the song Quiet one of my favourite songs by them cause it simple and gets to the point.
WELCOME TO NOWHERE FAST/NOTHING HERE EVER LASTS
This song seems to be about staying with a memory that has tainted the person into thinking whats the point anymore, and that they cant move on because of the mistakes they have made.
NOTHING BUT MEMORIES OF WHAT NEVER WAS
WHERE NOWHERE TO BE
Here we come to the fourth song and second single zero which is about despising yourself for what you are and knowing that you can't change what you are, however also not understanding why your loved one would love you in the first place is beyond you.
MY REFLECTION DIRTY MIRROR/THERES NO CONNECTION TO MYSELF
SHES THE ONE FOR ME/SHES ALL I REALLY NEED
Throughout the rest of the first disc and second their is a very odd sense of collective energy flowing, however some songs seem to contradict themselves, probably to give the idea that not one song or idea is the answer to all problems and maybes listening to the album as a whole seems to give you every possible way of looking at a situation or memory of the protoganist (if their actually is one) going through the different emotional states. Some other standout songs on the first disc may include bullet with butterfly wings which seems to reflect the fact that whatever anger anyone has or whatever anyone has to do to escape their fears or problems they know in the end their just as a trapped as everybody else and may eventually have to accept it.
Other songs on the first disk especially the one To forgive seems to have a chilling downbeat which seems to signify remorse or loss and an ode to no one which again steps on the anger of trying to disconnect someone you dont like from your life. As most reviews of this album tend to already know breaking this epic down into 28 individual opinions is nigh on impossible and obviously even you would not want to read a gargantuan review like that. Mind you with the angry songs you get a lot of beautiful love songs, Galapagos is one of them which has some soothing lyrics. There are also some very long songs which include Porcelina of the vast oceans which is a slow winding epic.
CARVE OUT YOUR HEART FOR KEEPS IN AN OLD OAK TREE
DESPITE ALL MY RAGE I AM STILL JUST A RAT IN A CAGE
As the first disc draws to a close we are treated to a soothing come down song called Take me down which seems to be about the sun giving way to the night.
Second Disc Twilight to Starlight
Disc two seems to incorporate a lot of angry negative songs indeed, the first track off this Where boys fear to tread has a powerful riff with some harsh drum beats while the next track bodies is basically just pure rage with Corgan wailing,
LOVE IS SUICIDE
Communication breakdown perhaps?
However disc 2 also incorporates some songs that have the same tone as the first disc with in the arms of sleep that is the case.
Thru the eyes of ruby is another long winding song which shows an interesting view of the progressive rock tune.
A FLAWED WORK OF ART?
The only problem I have with this album is that Corgan has so many ideas that are trying to flourish at once and I think even he said in a magazine interview somewhere that he wish he could have spent more time on some of the songs to perfect them further still, some of them get pulled off rather nicely and some do their job but could have been better, i also understand that the track listing is a very hard one to negotiate terms with since their are so many songs, however i feel that flood and Billy seem to have done the best they could and thats all that matters as this is and always was meant to be a five star product.
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