The Smashing Pumpkins, you may not know a lot about them, but chances are you’ve heard at least three of their songs if you’ve spent
any time at all listening to music since 1995. If you don’t believe me just head on over to youtube and type in the songs mentioned in this
review. Oh, and when you find I’m right, you owe me a Coke Zero. Even the movies have their own way of delivering the Pumpkins, from
comedies like Clerks 2 to the newly released Transformers movie. As a band, they redefined music and singles like ‘Bullet With Butterfly
Wings’, and top ten hits like ‘1979’, ‘Zero’, and ‘Tonight Tonight’. They even managed to give the world of music videos a facelift in the
process with their imaginative concepts and brilliant imagery in ‘Tonight, Tonight’ and ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings’.
I have to say not only does this album hold my absolute favorite Pumpkins’ song, ‘Tonight Tonight’, but it is also littered with hidden
jewels such as ‘We Only Come Out At Night’ and ‘Jellybelly’. I could list all the songs off both CD’s as musical ‘gems’ but that would
become a bit redundant, don’t you think? It’s far easier to mention instead just how different this album is from any other I’ve ever
owned. Between Billy Corgan’s distinctive voice and the mesh of sounds that forms the music behind it, Mellon Collie and the Infinite
Sadness is an essential addition to any ‘eclectic’ music collection of today.
The two disks of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness are most often described as a loose concept album symbolizing the cycle of life
and death. In keeping with this theme we find that the first album ‘Dawn to Dusk’ holds a collection of songs that are musically harder
and more edgy than those of the other disk ‘Twilight to Starlight’. ‘Dawn to Dusk’ holds more of the hits and the well-known songs such
as ‘Zero’ and ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ and sound more in-your-face musically. The lyrics of the music on ‘Twilight to Starlight’
have a sharper edge though in my opinion with reminiscent sound of songs like ‘Thirty-Three’ and the stark descriptions in ‘Stumbleine’.
Each disc of Mellon Collie could easily stand on it’s own but one other thing to look at is how well the discs were blended together.
That loose concept mentioned earlier is carried well in the final songs of both discs. In the lyrics of ‘Take Me Down’ off of ‘Dawn to
Dusk’ make it easy to picture the fears of of some to sleep, or even just to sleep alone depending on which theme you decide to go with.
The sound of ‘Take Me Down’ is very much understood that the album isn’t complete and it’s hard not to reach for the second disc
immediately. Some people I’ve talked to mention the literal themes of Day and Night, reasoning their existence by the names of each disk.
The very final track on ‘Twilight to Starlight’, titled ‘Farewell and Goodnight’, is a wonderful wrap up to the theme of both discs. The
lyrics are very final and make it easy to imagine the journey you take in listening to Mellon Collie is truly over.
any time at all listening to music since 1995. If you don’t believe me just head on over to youtube and type in the songs mentioned in this
review. Oh, and when you find I’m right, you owe me a Coke Zero. Even the movies have their own way of delivering the Pumpkins, from
comedies like Clerks 2 to the newly released Transformers movie. As a band, they redefined music and singles like ‘Bullet With Butterfly
Wings’, and top ten hits like ‘1979’, ‘Zero’, and ‘Tonight Tonight’. They even managed to give the world of music videos a facelift in the
process with their imaginative concepts and brilliant imagery in ‘Tonight, Tonight’ and ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings’.
I have to say not only does this album hold my absolute favorite Pumpkins’ song, ‘Tonight Tonight’, but it is also littered with hidden
jewels such as ‘We Only Come Out At Night’ and ‘Jellybelly’. I could list all the songs off both CD’s as musical ‘gems’ but that would
become a bit redundant, don’t you think? It’s far easier to mention instead just how different this album is from any other I’ve ever
owned. Between Billy Corgan’s distinctive voice and the mesh of sounds that forms the music behind it, Mellon Collie and the Infinite
Sadness is an essential addition to any ‘eclectic’ music collection of today.
The two disks of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness are most often described as a loose concept album symbolizing the cycle of life
and death. In keeping with this theme we find that the first album ‘Dawn to Dusk’ holds a collection of songs that are musically harder
and more edgy than those of the other disk ‘Twilight to Starlight’. ‘Dawn to Dusk’ holds more of the hits and the well-known songs such
as ‘Zero’ and ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ and sound more in-your-face musically. The lyrics of the music on ‘Twilight to Starlight’
have a sharper edge though in my opinion with reminiscent sound of songs like ‘Thirty-Three’ and the stark descriptions in ‘Stumbleine’.
Each disc of Mellon Collie could easily stand on it’s own but one other thing to look at is how well the discs were blended together.
That loose concept mentioned earlier is carried well in the final songs of both discs. In the lyrics of ‘Take Me Down’ off of ‘Dawn to
Dusk’ make it easy to picture the fears of of some to sleep, or even just to sleep alone depending on which theme you decide to go with.
The sound of ‘Take Me Down’ is very much understood that the album isn’t complete and it’s hard not to reach for the second disc
immediately. Some people I’ve talked to mention the literal themes of Day and Night, reasoning their existence by the names of each disk.
The very final track on ‘Twilight to Starlight’, titled ‘Farewell and Goodnight’, is a wonderful wrap up to the theme of both discs. The
lyrics are very final and make it easy to imagine the journey you take in listening to Mellon Collie is truly over.
Editor's Choice: Lauren
Band: Smashing Pumpkins
Album: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Band: Smashing Pumpkins
Album: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
