ZEITGEIST - SMASHING PUMPKINS
The long, weird saga of the Smashing Pumpkins opens a new chapter with “Zeitgeist,” their first disc since splitting in 2000. The group was always primarily a fancy name for Billy Corgan anyway, so this quote-fingers comeback, which features only Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin from the glory days, is actually more genuine than most. It’s still a mess, though an ambitious and grandiose one. Corgan certainly hasn’t forgotten how to make a Pumpkins record, as gleaming serrated guitars, fantastic torrents of drums and twisting layers of vocals dominate. But though his celestial indulgences are still in place (especially on “United States,” the record’s end-times centerpiece), Corgan’s rock tracks sound weirdly thin. He’s more disarmingly effective on tracks like “That’s the Way (My Love Is),” a pop gem that leaps off the record, and the “Mellon Collie”-referencing closer “Pomp and Circumstance.”
