• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Official Smashing Pumpkins thread

120v

Member
well... it's not awful. but i don't think it bodes well for the album that this was the first single and something billy considers a "hot rocker"
 

Oreoleo

Member
¡HarlequinPanic!;135132370 said:

Not bad. His vocals are too dry during the verses IMO, but everything sounds pretty good in the chorus. Overall, the song is pretty inoffensive compared to some of the work on Teargarden and Zeitgeist. Listened to it with the speaker on my phone though so it's possible my opinion will change once I get some headphones on.

But yup, that's a song alright.

Had time to listen to it once. Not sure how I feel about it. I don't hate it and I actually like when he takes his voice high like he does here.
Yeah I liked that too. Reminded me of Machina 1 in a way. There were moments where the song sounded like it had that "it" factor but they were fleeting.
 
This song would not be on the album I was waiting 15yrs for.

This song feels "safe" if that makes any sense.

edit: don't get me wrong, the song is nice, beautiful even. This is like one of those songs your fav artist puts out at the first sign of maturing as an artist. Thing is, Billy is past long past that age. Its enough to have me interested in the rest of the album and how this all flows together.
 

Diablos

Member
What the fuck is this shit? I can't say I'm surprised. I expect the rest of the album to be just as underwhelming.

Billy's former bandmate Nicole is featured on this song: https://soundcloud.com/themicrodance/making-plans-for-the-end-radio-edit
Kind of embarrassing when D'Arcy 4.0 worked on a better song than Billy.

edit: I think Billy should revisit some stuff from reissues and figure out ways to make them singles. Why not? It's easy enough to do these days.
Obscured, Moleasskiss, Speed come to mind. I bet they would all get a good amount of play on alternative rock radio.
 

Curufinwe

Member
It can take me months or years to decide I how much I really like a song, but my first impression of this is pretty good. Reminds me a bit of El Sol.
 

Diablos

Member
Hateful whiners like you are the worst type of SP fan.
LOL. I used to have a reputation around here for blindly defending every little thing Corgan ever did.

Zwan as a live act was pretty awesome; the album's production outright sucked and some of the lyrics were unbearable, i.e. El Sol.
 

Diablos

Member
I feel like a Sonic fan with every passing Smashing Pumpkins album.
Hahaha! The Sonic Cycle does apply.

I have to say though, Oceania DOES have some cool guitar work; Glissandra comes to mind. Honestly, it does have some really strong songs. Not even saying that for the sake of conversation here. If Billy picked Glissandra as a single it could have got a lot of airplay. Mike's muffled underwater drumming really sucks of course. It's funny though. The production was a lot better than Zeitgeist and even Machina 1, but of course, something else had to be totally off, and that would be the drumming. Trade one problem for another.
 
I liked Oceania. But it just distinctly felt like something an older person would write. It was an album of maturing from weird ass shit like superchrist and the first teargarden releases...to uh...OTHER weird ass shit like singing about mother moon. Its kind of bland, though.

The title track is pretty great imo.

I don't know I've just kind of resigned myself to the fact that billy's getting up there and just doesn't write with the sardonic anger that made tracks like cherub rock possible any longer. That's a shame because that very same culture he lashed out against in that song is all but the mainstream now, but its kept my expectations in check.

Kind of insulting to nicole's body of work to call her a version of D'Arcy, imo~~~~
 

Diablos

Member
It isn't angst so much as not being young anymore. Cherub Rock isn't really angry, it's kind of tongue in cheek.
Billy is just getting old.

edit: Not dissing Nicole so much as just saying the latest member of the SP female bassist revolving door club is putting out a better song than Billy at the moment.
 

Curufinwe

Member
¡HarlequinPanic!;135409204 said:
I liked Oceania. But it just distinctly felt like something an older person would write. It was an album of maturing from weird ass shit like superchrist and the first teargarden releases...to uh...OTHER weird ass shit like singing about mother moon. Its kind of bland, though.

The title track is pretty great imo.

I don't know I've just kind of resigned myself to the fact that billy's getting up there and just doesn't write with the sardonic anger that made tracks like cherub rock possible any longer. That's a shame because that very same culture he lashed out against in that song is all but the mainstream now, but its kept my expectations in check.

Kind of insulting to nicole's body of work to call her a version of D'Arcy, imo~~~~

There are three or four songs I really like on Oceania. The others I can barely remember, but I wasn't expecting another Siamese Dream with a dozen classics so it doesn't make me angry.
 
Being Beige can only be described as safe to me. It's not shit, but it's just not what they used to put out. Granted my taste in music changed a lot since I got into Smashing Pumpkins, but the experimentation is just lacking in current Pumpkins. I don't know why he decided to break out the drum machine because whenever I hear that thing I start thinking of earlier Cocteau Twins work, which while distinctively 80's is still some very good ground breaking music. I wouldn't even factor in age either since I like the Deftones and while they're a lot older than when they released Adrenaline they still managed to put out consistently good music while evolving their sound, same can be said for Radio Head. Maybe Corgan's just running out of ideas?
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
It can take me months or years to decide I how much I really like a song, but my first impression of this is pretty good. Reminds me a bit of El Sol.

I love that Zwan album, but El Sol this is not.

It's totally bland and boring. Not bad per say, but def bland.
 

120v

Member
after about 5 or so listens i've come to appreciate how, unlike oceania or zeitgeist, this doesn't seem to be a "modern take" on older material, as zeitgeist was a throwback to the pre-Adore face melting stuff, and oceania was a take on the more shoegazy psychedelic material from those days. as meh as the song is, it seems to be doing its own thing. and if that's indicative of the album, it'll be at least one plus in my book
 

DiscoJon

Banned
This is the same neutered SP we've had for years. Maybe the rumored doom metal album will bring new life to the band!
88.gif
 
Being Beige sounds like a Zwan song. While there's not necessarily anything wrong with that, it's not what I expect from A Pumpkins record. Hoping the rest of the album is a lot stronger. Personally I loved Oceania.
 
New song is definitely worse than being biege, which I heard on the radio last week and really enjoyed listening to again.

I guess doing anything interesting with the guitar isn't really what billy and THE SHREDDER are down with :\

Like this song blooowwwssssss, so toothless. Going through the motions at its finest, joining Green Day in the ranks of "bands that make you say "meh I could play that" ".

as toothless as AN OLD MAN.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/05/smashing-pumpkins-one-and-all_n_6103894.html


bleh I'm going to go listen to I of the mourning and wash this out.
 
¡HarlequinPanic!;137449663 said:
New song is definitely worse than being biege, which I heard on the radio last week and really enjoyed listening to again.

I guess doing anything interesting with the guitar isn't really what billy and THE SHREDDER are down with :

Like this song blooowwwssssss, so toothless. Going through the motions at its finest, joining Green Day in the ranks of "bands that make you say "meh I could play that" ".

as toothless as AN OLD MAN.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/05/smashing-pumpkins-one-and-all_n_6103894.html


bleh I'm going to go listen to I of the mourning and wash this out.

It's better than the first single in my opinion. Still not good though. I hate how he sings now
 
Yeah it's better. I immediately wanted to listen to this again after my first listen. Sounds like a Mellon Collie outtake to me. I quite like the guitar tone.
 
I immediately liked "One and All" more than "Being Beige" within the first 2 seconds it started playing.

I'm sorry to say....I can't even believe I'm typing this...but the guitar tone reminds me of Silversun Pickups. Which is completely backwards.
 
Top Bottom