Smashing Pumpkins' Oceania

History lesson (for you younger kids): Smashing Pumpkins used to be this awesome rock group in the 90s that played awesome rock songs you couldn’t help rocking out and singing to (look up “Zero,” “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” and “Cherub Rock”). They also had crossover hits in amazing songs like “1979,” “Disarm,” and “Tonight, Tonight.”

[I’m not kidding, if you’re not familiar with this band,
look up every one of those songs right now.]

Somewhere along the way, that changed. Most would say it was after Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995). Some would say they had potential in their first comeback with 2007’s Zeitgeist, which boasted the singles “Tarantula” and “That’s the Way (My Love Is).” But then, all of a sudden, Billy Corgan again found himself the only member of the band, as Jimmy Chamberlin had left. Corgan had previously stated that he didn’t want to keep playing if Jimmy wasn’t going to be a part of it.

Too bad.

In 2009, Smashing Pumpkins found new life with the addition of then-19 year old drummer Mike Byrne. They started writing and recording a 44 song concept album called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, to be released one song at a time, for free, over the internet. Over the course of the first ten songs from this Goliath of a project, the new Pumpkins added a full time guitarist and bass player to their lineup. Their new release, Oceania, is a part of that ongoing concept album. What follows is my track-by-track review of the new album, which comes out tomorrow, June 19^th.

The opening track, “Quasar,” starts off sounding like the beginning of Incubus’s “Vitamin,” but soon finds its own sound with swooping wall-o-sound guitars reminiscent of old Smashing Pumpkins. And then of course, Corgan’s unique voice comes across, singing over the crazy guitar parts. This is the Smashing Pumpkins. They’re back. The opening sequence is just so good. The opening of this song makes it the perfect choice to open the album.

“Panopticon” starts almost without warning, as it sounds like it could be a continuation of “Quasar”—except that it’s a better song. The section that comes right after the first chorus is absolutely beautiful as the guitars duel the bass in perfect harmony.

“The Celestials” was immediately my favorite song on this album. It starts with just an acoustic guitar and vocals for the first verses and the first chorus, then he gets a few lines into the second verse and introduces an electric guitar (sans distortion) and the bass, and they sound so incredible with the vocals. They don’t disappoint me for a second on this song.

The next song, “Violet Rays,” starts off sounding like it belongs on the TRON: Legacy soundtrack, until guitar comes in and Corgan starts singing. The normal Pumpkins sounding parts of the song are blended so well with the sections that sound like they could have come from a Daft Punk album. Overall, this is a very good mellow track.

“My Love is Winter,” comes next, at track five. I like this track, but I wouldn’t be picking it to be a single if I were in charge, especially if I want people to remember the Smashing Pumpkins at their rocking best.

Track six, “One Diamond, One Heart,” without Billy Corgan’s highly recognizable voice, would not be recognizable as a Smashing Pumpkins song. That’s not to say this is a bad thing. This is a love song. The chorus is handled very well, instrumentally, and Corgan sounds sincere (as always).

“Pinwheels” starts off like an advertisement for UPS. I can hear the guy talking over it while drawing on his whiteboard. (“Alright! International shipping. Your products are on a plane…”) Then the song completely shifts gears into an acoustic section with Billy singing about the sun and the moon. Then there’s a verse over violins and guitars and keyboards. When they go back into the acoustic chorus, there are layered backing vocals, performed by a woman, and executed beautifully.

The title track follows, and is a staggering nine minutes long. It seems to have several movements and is very experimental in structure. It has a very long instrumental section that’s really spacey and pretty cool to listen to.

“Pale Horse” is another slower, softer song. Normally this song would be a great change of pace in the middle of a fairly heavy Pumpkins album. But it comes after like five other mellow/soft songs, so I’m not really feeling it in sequence.

Finally back to an uptempo song! “The Chimera” is an exciting, upbeat song, with a great, driving guitar riff to combat Corgan’s creative vocals. This is a very enjoyable song.

“Glissandra” commanded my attention at its start. Corgan cleverly turns a technical musical term (glissando) into a woman’s name in this song. I say it’s clever because his guitar performs many glissandos throughout the song, using a slide. This is a wonderful marriage of music and lyrics.

The penultimate track, “Inkless,” has an almost traditional feel to it for the Pumpkins. It has a sawing guitar as its base sound, which was prominent on earlier Pumpkins’ work.

“Wildflower” is a great song. There aren’t any drums in it, but it doesn’t really need them. It’s primarily strings and synth sounds backing the vocals in this beautiful (beautifully simple?) song.

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A lot of the lyrics on this album are about the sky, whether it’s the night sky or the day sky, which helps convince you that this is, indeed, a chapter of the concept album that the Smashing Pumpkins are working on. It’s nice to hear Billy Corgan letting loose vocally on this album. There seems to have been a hesitance in his voice on their other albums—like he wasn’t able to sing as well as he would have liked—and now he’s come into his own as a singer. While I would still love to see the Smashing Pumpkins live, this album did nothing to add to or subtract from that. While I enjoyed several tracks on this album, I wouldn’t call this a “return-to-form” for the Smashing Pumpkins. And while I would say this is a must-listen album (if only for its historical value), I wouldn’t call it a must-have album. I think that this is a solid release for a band—just not necessarily for the legendary Smashing Pumpkins. Please share your thoughts below!

Oceania is available in four formats.
CD Digipack + Digital Download: the 13 track album as a compact disc, plus a digital download of the full album the day of its release.
Vinyl Double LP + Digital Download: the 13 track album on vinyl, plus a digital download of the full album the day of its release.
Digital Download – Standard Definition: a standard definition digital download of the 13 track album the day of its release.
Digital Download – High Definition: a high definition digital download of the 13 track album the day of its release.

To buy Oceania, visit http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/oceania/purchase/