Oceania-The Smashing Pumpkins,Review
It’s been a sort of a revolving door these past few years with Smashing Pumpkins.The band broke up and then came back! However,as it turns out, Billy Corgan is in good company these days. So for all of us who couldn't keep track, here's an update, Corgan (vocals, lead guitar), Jeff Schroeder (guitar), Nicole Fiorentino (bass), and Mike Byrne (drums).
Before The Smashing Pumpkins released its best-selling album, the double-discMellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, there was a speculation that the band was being overambitious. Now frontman Billy Corgan is in the middle of an even more ambitious project—a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, that is to be parsed out over the next few years.
With some of those 44 songs already have been given away for free, Corgan, the only original band member on the album, has released the next batch of 13 with Oceania, which is billed “an album within an album.”Its there ninth studio album.
On “The Celestials”, he’s speaking with depth, awaking the same emotional chords that once hooked a generation, the kinds which would be found on crumpled up pieces of notebook paper! But it’s that depth that’s always been there with the Smashing Pumpkins, distortion, and lyrics can only take you so far. If there are no feelings present, then where are we?
Corgan cries again and again on “Pale Horse”, it’s a hungry, desperate moment. Vocally, he pours his heart out over crashing cymbals. “The Chimera”, with a friendly theme, makes it one of the more perky tracks in the Pumpkins’ album!
Elsewhere, Corgan cleans up the garage with “Quasar”, which Byrne uses as an opportunity to rival Chamberlin, and the jostling riffs of “Inkless”, rather amped up, which I liked. Things get spacey in “Violet Rays”, excessive in “One Diamond” and “One Heart”, comfortable in “Pinwheels”, and heroic “Panopticon”, all without pushing it too far. Instead, they maintain a pleasant medium. “Oceania” adds up to an alternative suite, fuelling Corgans’ inherent drive to be a rock star
If anything, Oceania seems to combine all the elements of what one comes to expect from a Pumpkins album, from the loud and guitar-heavy opener Quasar to the pop-inflected keyboard notes of One Diamond, One Heart to the melodic and quiet closer, Wildflower.
Enjoy!
Cheers!
TRACK LIST-
1."Quasar"
2."Panopticon"
3."The Celestials"
4."Violet Rays"
5."My Love Is Winter"
6."One Diamond, One Heart"
7."Pinwheels"
8."Oceania"
9."Pale Horse"
10."The Chimera"
11."Glissandra"
12."Inkless"
13."Wildflower"
MY FAVORITE - QUASAR
Before The Smashing Pumpkins released its best-selling album, the double-discMellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, there was a speculation that the band was being overambitious. Now frontman Billy Corgan is in the middle of an even more ambitious project—a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, that is to be parsed out over the next few years.
With some of those 44 songs already have been given away for free, Corgan, the only original band member on the album, has released the next batch of 13 with Oceania, which is billed “an album within an album.”Its there ninth studio album.
On “The Celestials”, he’s speaking with depth, awaking the same emotional chords that once hooked a generation, the kinds which would be found on crumpled up pieces of notebook paper! But it’s that depth that’s always been there with the Smashing Pumpkins, distortion, and lyrics can only take you so far. If there are no feelings present, then where are we?
Corgan cries again and again on “Pale Horse”, it’s a hungry, desperate moment. Vocally, he pours his heart out over crashing cymbals. “The Chimera”, with a friendly theme, makes it one of the more perky tracks in the Pumpkins’ album!
Elsewhere, Corgan cleans up the garage with “Quasar”, which Byrne uses as an opportunity to rival Chamberlin, and the jostling riffs of “Inkless”, rather amped up, which I liked. Things get spacey in “Violet Rays”, excessive in “One Diamond” and “One Heart”, comfortable in “Pinwheels”, and heroic “Panopticon”, all without pushing it too far. Instead, they maintain a pleasant medium. “Oceania” adds up to an alternative suite, fuelling Corgans’ inherent drive to be a rock star
If anything, Oceania seems to combine all the elements of what one comes to expect from a Pumpkins album, from the loud and guitar-heavy opener Quasar to the pop-inflected keyboard notes of One Diamond, One Heart to the melodic and quiet closer, Wildflower.
Enjoy!
Cheers!
TRACK LIST-
1."Quasar"
2."Panopticon"
3."The Celestials"
4."Violet Rays"
5."My Love Is Winter"
6."One Diamond, One Heart"
7."Pinwheels"
8."Oceania"
9."Pale Horse"
10."The Chimera"
11."Glissandra"
12."Inkless"
13."Wildflower"
MY FAVORITE - QUASAR