The Smashing Pumpkins - 'Zeitgeist' (Reprise) Released 09/07/07

A true love or hate act, Smashing Pumpkins are remembered with little fondness, mostly due to Billy Corgan’s ego-implosion and turning into a New Order tribute band towards the end. This is not to mention the deeply-okay Zwan album, his utterly awful Thefutureembrace and a book of poetry to ruin the legacy. It’s very easy to forget quite how good it was once. 'Siamese Dream' is prog-grunge mastery, an epic album of youthful ruin and breathtaking tunes. 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' was the 90s great cocaine beast, an overblown blast of megalomaniacal guitar rock which including the defining ‘Tonight, Tonight’, a string-drenched masterwork that ensured Smashing Pumpkins’ place in the rock canon forever.

Even later records, including the New Order-aping 'Adore' couldn’t dull the pop ear Corgan has, likely the exact ear he wishes so dearly he didn’t have. He’s the ying of Cobain’s yang, eschewing the perceived dark-nights of the soul of Nirvana for overblown prog dreams, flights of epic, insane fancy and huge choruses. For all the apparent posturing from Corgan to be considered a great artiste, his great strength lies in writing all-encompassing, world-beating rock music. Listen now to ‘Disarm’ or ‘1979’, and the euphoric theatre of the arrangements flows through. He was born to write massive commercial anthems, closer to Freddie Mercury than Ian Curtis. The return to Smashing Pumpkins territory has been greeted with the predictable fusion of ‘love the idea’ first before descending into ‘corporate cash-in’.

First single ‘Tarantula’ now seems a perfect indication of what lies beneath, Corgan mining ever more classic-rocking wells, sounding not unlike a camp Green Day. Calling the album Zeitgeist just about grasps the sheer unawareness of Corgan’s vision. Zeitgeist for an album like this, made now, is ludicrous unless this is indeed the start of the post-grunge revival. The guitars on the record at times recall Weezer, ‘Neverlost’ recalls early, Pablo Honey era Radiohead, ‘Bring The Light’ even gives visions of Pearl Jam while the 9-minute ‘United States’ recalls nothing if not the heavier, prog-grunge moments on Mellon Collie. Indeed the single reference point for this whole record is Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins. ‘For God And Country’, despite the pointed political rhetoric, is pure ‘Cherub Rock’ and ‘Bleeding Orchid’ could be the b-side of ‘Rhinoceros’. Always Corgan’s voice will grate some but he has the knack of framing it very well.

For all the back-looking nature on show here, everything still sounds consummately professional, always anthemic and listenable. The issue is a basic one that the tunes simply aren’t the standard to which we expect when this music comes on. Its by no means a bad album but the sense of corporate cashing in does remain strong in the air and sours the experience slightly. Still, for remaining underrated, misguided and filled with colossal ego that fuels his total unawareness of outside trend, you can’t fault Corgan and this new opus, while completely throwaway, is worth the ride.