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The Smashing Pumpkins

Zeitgeist

Martha's Music / Reprise | 2007 | Album

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After a side trip with his other band Zwan in 2003 and a 2005 solo effort The Future Embrace, Billy Corgan has returned to the Smashing Pumpkins. Problem is all of the Pumpkins haven’t returned to him. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin has joined in for the reunion but two other original members – guitarist James Iha and bassist D’arcy Wretzky – didn’t come out to play. Can this really be a Smashing Pumpkins album with only two originals on board? Yes – and mostly because Corgan says it is. He’s always been the face and voice of the band and his passion for the Pumpkin’s sound is alive and well on Zeitgeist – his dark passion that is.

When the cover of the album has the Statue of Liberty surrounded by a rising red tide and songs titled “Doomsday Clock and “7 Shades of Black” you get the idea that Billy Corgan might not be the US of A’s ideal Yankee Doodle Boy. But whatever the Pumpkin’s front man plans to preach, you know it’s going to be done with the perfect mixture of melody, angst and guitar-driven alt-rock. The tradition continues right off the bat with the disc’s opening track, the apocalyptic “Doomsday Clock”. Corgan’s passionate rock vocals are mixed high and are stronger than ever. When he cries out “Is everyone afraid?” at the end of the song, the track comes to a crashing halt and the question hangs in the air for a few very poignant seconds.

Zeitgeist also flirts with some new wave vibes from time to time. “Starz”, a song that’s surprisingly pop-friendly, has an electronic chorus that Thomas Dolby would be proud of. “For God and Country” is harder-hitting (“We’re fighting for our lives”) but it still has a glossy sound. The visceral rock of the Smashing Pumpkins comes home with a vengeance though on the nine minute plus song “United States”. It’s long but haunting with chants of “Revolution!” followed by the haunting question “What will they do to me?” The track grows into a garage rock monster with jam after jam butting heads and battling it out to the finish.

This might not be the same Smashing Pumpkins that you fell love with the first time around, but if you give them a chance you might learn to like this line-up too.

Amy Wagner