Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgiest

Did you hear about this?

Asheville is about an hour from me, so I definitely plan on trying to grab some tickets for one of these shows.

Source: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/..._id=1003584774

Stadium Arcadium? Don't you mean "By The Way"?

I guess billy corgon couldn't make it on his own. They must be starving.

I found a link streaming the song. I like it, especially the hook.
http://www.thepumpkins.net/

This sounds very promising.

"Tarantula" sounds exactly like a decent by-the-numbers Zwan track to me. Not bad, but not incredibly exciting either. Billy's an extremely talented guitarist and arranger. But I think lyrics and/or vocals have long been his deal breakers. They either serve the song well or they totally ruin it (e.g. "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"). The vocals on "Tarantula" are fine. But the lyrics are pretty weak. Maybe this doesn't speak for all of Zeitgeist. But if it does, I believe this album is going to be pretty disappointing. Decent lyrics I can deal with. Painfully bad ones, not so much.

After hearing "Tarantula", I was pretty concerned that the new Pumpkins was going to be dissapointing. Unfortunately, I was on the right track. Zeitgeist is the WORST Pumpkins album by far. And actually, I can't decide which sucks harder - this or Billy's solo album.

To put it another way, I'm still mixed on the latest from Nine Inch Nails and QOTSA. But compared to this, those albums are new classics.

I was pretty damn stoked for this album from the day it was announced.

Sadly, it was all for naught.

Zeitgeist is indeed the weakest Pumpkins album by a wide margin - "Neverlost" and "Bleeding the Orchid" are quality tracks, but the rest of the album is just... bleh.

It drones on and on without the whimsy or soaring choruses of Corgan's past Pumpkins work... To my ears, it just sounds like the Pumpkins without "their" soul.

its better than zwan, but i thought the album was pretty average, they are past there prime sadly, im going to see them at v-fest in toronto in sept so hopefully its awesome

It really is the weakest. Utter forgettable.

DISAGREED. Strongly. While the Zwan album isn't incredibly memorable overall, I was pleasantly surprised with it when it came out. There are some good songs on that one and I'm pretty sure I like it better than the last two (three if you count Machina II) Smashing Pumpkins albums. It's certainly a lot more cohesive and listenable than the sloppy axe masturbation on Zeitgeist. Whatever. I just can't believe that this is the same Billy Corgan who was largely responsible for Gish and Siamese Dream. After those, nothing else he's worked on has fully gelled, in my opinion. There was a lot of greatness sprinkled throughout Mellon Collie, but Billy managed to work a lot of his pretenciousness into that album, which was annoying (e.g. singing directly through the nose, the ridiculous lyrics to "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and "Zero", etc).

Did I mention that Zeitgeist hates your life and wants to torture you slowly without remorse?

I have only heard the single...but it does remind me of MACHINA. Corgan heralded his own return to form on that album, too. Really? SP died with Mellon Collie...which was really pretty good. Adore had a couple good tracks but felt really weak, compared to their first couple.

As with MACHINA, Corgan seems to be chasing his own idea of what made the Pumpkins great...its like he hasn't even listened to Siamese Dream in forever and only remembers the really rocking numbers as being the highlights of their material. While I love me some "Geek USA", it was really the more psychedelic stuff ("Hummer", "Rocket") that made them great and totally unique.

Fuck this is bad. Listening to it right now and thinking of switching it...or just stabbing myself in the ears with two pens.

Did anyone catch the band's horrendous Live Earth performance? DAMN. That was uglier than the worst show the original Pumpkins ever played. Billy sang as if each word he uttered tightened a hidden torture clamp around his scrotum. He never was the greatest singer, but he was at least decent once upon a time. Now he seems to be struggling to duplicate his formerly average vocal delivery. The instrumentation was almost completely dull throughout as well. I really wasn't surprised that the new songs bored me, but even the classic material sounded bad here. Go watch/listen to the Live Earth performance of "Today" and tell me it's not the sorriest performance of it you've ever heard any version of the Pumpkins play. Billy also looks completely uncomfortable, nervous, irritated or all of the above. Maybe he just isn't feeling it the way he thought he would. Anyway, believe it or not, there was a time when I loved Smashing Pumpkins. But at this point, I just don't know that anyone can bring them back from the dead.

So, has the new album improved on repeat listens or does everyone have a shiny new coaster?

The album is another sad stain on the Pumpkins legacy, but I have to admit that it's not nearly as horrendous as I was warned. Three songs into the album, and I find that it just sounds like Bodies from Mellon Collie, but with louder production, and more distorted. I still recommend giving it a listen. If Machina didn't turn you off the band, and make you afraid to revisit their glory years (the album did that to me for a while), this album certainly isn't the one to turn you off. It's utterly forgettable, but not nearly as annoying as Machina, and it's more interesting than Billy's solo album or the Zwan stuff.

I'd just like to say that I really like Zeitgeist.

I, on the other hand, have grown even more disappointed with the new album. Recently went back and listened to Adore and Machina and, while those are not my favorite Pumpkins albums, each has some great songs. Like Machina's one-->two punch (tracks 3 & 4) of Stand Inside Your Love and I Of The Mourning. I can't find any special songs like those on Zeitgeist.