Okay, fair enough; we've all had our gripes with Billy Corgan over the years. His solo album was garbage, so he resurrected the Smashing Pumpkins name; this seems to be the main point of contention for most. And, now that Corgan's the only remaining original member, it's all too easy to write Oceania off as a cash grab, a desperate last ditch effort to rake in some dough on the legacy of past successes.
You know what? Even if that's absolutely true, Oceania is a fine album. The full-metal frontal attack of Zeitgeist shocked and delighted in its bluntness; but once the novelty wore off it was exposed as sort of a dumb, hulking behemoth that was fun for a few spins but ultimately lacked in lasting power.
Oceania is a complete and well-constructed album; it's got rockers and ballads, ebb and flow. The obviously rocking one-two punch of Quasar and Panopticon give way to subtler powerhouses that litter the rest of the album. My Love Is Winter is packed with hooks that would have been buried under a mountain of fuzz five years ago. The title track is epic in its scope, managing the skirt the edges of pretentiousness without diving in head first thanks in part to its "three songs in one" approach (although its pretty much note-perfect reproduction of the opening melody of Slipknot's Vermillion is a bit of a head scratcher). Late-album highlights The Chimera and Inkless are blasts of Siamese Dream-era bliss, complete with that familiar Corgan tone that is missing from much of his latter-day output.
At its core, Oceania is Corgan's finest collection of songs since Mellon Collie, and a stark reminder that, no matter what misadventures he's had or may yet embark on, he was revered in the 90's for good reason. He's one of the best songwriters of our time, and when he dials back his difficult nature and cranks out the goods, it's breathtaking. It's time to stop hating on Billy Corgan and recognize the fact that, regardless of who's in the band with him, he is Smashing Pumpkins. To hang on to petty preconceptions and avoid Oceania is your loss, because it's a great record.
Find out for yourself by streaming it on iTunes. Oceania sees official release June 19.
There's no timetable for a new album, so this little platter acts as a bit of a stopgap release; regardless, it's crunchy and sweet, keeping with Superchunk's crunchy and sweet legacy. And the B-side is a cover of Cruel Summer. Yes, the Bananarama song. I dearly wish I could find a stream of that to share with you too, but check out This Summer in the meantime:
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