The Smashing Pumpkins are a hugely talented band, with a diverse, genre-defying discography that spans over ten years. If you’ve only heard their radio hits like “Today” or “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.
For those who missed out on all the good Pumpkins albums when they were released, we’ve been given a chance to enlighten ourselves with their latest, a two disc greatest hits album. And with an arsenal of over 250 released songs, few bands are more deserving of a greatest hits release.
The first disc is an eighteen track run through their most popular songs. They’re presented in chronological order, and do a good job portraying the evolution of the band. The first few tracks showcase the soaring, layered guitar riff style of Siamese Dream and Gish, including the driving, almost hypnotic but little-known gem “Rhinoceros.”
These are followed by a gorgeous cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ballad, “Landslide,” the only song representing their first collection of B-sides, Pisces Iscariot. Next on the list are the tracks from their epic two-disc Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Included are the obligatory radio throwaways “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” and “1979”. These alone don’t do justice to the record’s epic scope, with highlights like “Bodies,” “Lily,” and “X.Y.U.” mysteriously missing.
Sadly, the disc virtually ignores their best album, Adore (probably because of its relatively recent release), only including the album’s two worst songs, “Ava Adore” and “Perfect.” The trippy, electronica soundscape of “Eye” from the Lost Highway soundtrack, however, is thankfully included. The disc ends with a few songs from Machina: the Machines of God, the culmination of a career full of bright spots. And you haven’t even gotten to the good CD yet.
The second disc contains all new and previously unreleased material that once again spans their entire career. Unlike most collections of b-sides, this CD alone warrants the purchase of this collection, and it would easily hold its own against any new album released this year. Tracks like the moody, beautiful epic “Aeroplane Flies High” and the James Iha acoustic showcase “Believe” bring to light new and deeper sides of the Pumpkins’ music, and any appreciation of their discography would be incomplete without this remarkable disc of “b-sides.”
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