THE SMASHING PUMPKINS: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Among the most zany names, the "Smashing Pumpkins" probably deserves a prize. And yet, few albums like Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness have made such an impact on their time. After several years of starvation and rambling in the middle of the grunge era, Billy Corgan's band is looking for the album that will bring them out into the open. In 1995, grunge died and our 4 musicians decided to launch a great project to conquer the music world.

It's really with this album that the band's career will take off. It won 7 Grammy Award nominations (a feat that only Green Day with American Idiot will manage to repeat) and flooded radios and discos all over the world. A true cult of the pumpkin is built. And for good reason, it is not one but two CD's - comprising 28 tracks - that they will release in 1995.

First part: Dawn To Dusk

The first CD of this double album clearly marks the break with the band's previous productions. Whether it is on the level of the voice - that Billy Corgan will work and push it like he never will again - or of the melodies, - that are more sought after and better produced than before - the band offers us the album of their career.

Dawn To Dusk is a masterpiece. Whether it's the piano instrumental Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness, the single Tonight, Tonight, the depressive ballad To Forgive or the more melancholic Galapogos, Billy Corgan reveals the full extent of his whimsical and delirious universe. The whole is surrounded by harder tracks like the single "Zero" or even the excellent "Bullet With Butterfly Wings".

Second part: Twilight To Starlight

Pink Floyd's 1979 double album The Wall was a hit; Genesis exploded into the spotlight with The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and the Beatles' white album is often considered their masterpiece. In short, so many successful double albums. With this second part, The Smashing Pumpkins will be able to boast of doing at least as well as the aforementioned albums.

The fear we could legitimately have with double-albums is that the quality of the first side run out of steam on the second one. Here, be reassured, the compositions remain of the same caliber, even adding a few weight reinforcements on the single side. Let's note the now famous "Thirty-Three" and "Love" that you don't even need to present anymore. Among the less mediatized but nevertheless very successful compositions, let's mention the guitar ballad "Stumbleine", the intriguing "In The Arms of Sleep" and even the more trip-hop "Beautiful". The album then comes at the end of 120 minutes of song on the ballad "Farewell and Goodnight" which closes the album as it started; on a few light piano notes.

In the end, the band reproduces the quintessence of his talent in this Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness. Considered by Billy Corgan as his "baby", it will also be the starting point of tensions that will lead to the separation of the band in the early 2000s. Never again will the Smashing Pumpkins be so successful. On no other album will you find such a universe and such an effort from the point of view of the voice and the compositions. In a word, this double-album is a "must" for any music lover. - Official website

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS

MELLON COLLIE AND THE INFINITE SADNESS

VIRGIN

ROCK