Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist

Amazon.com

Inside the buzzing hive of Smashing Pumpkins guitars is clearly where bandleader Billy Corgan feels most comfortable. So, after a seven-year hiatus for the short-lived group Zwan and his surprisingly sunny 2005 solo album, Corgan has revived the Pumpkins in all the six-string-spattered shades of emotional gray that made them one of the greatest bands of the alt-rock era. Longtime drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, along with famed boardsmiths Roy Thomas Baker and Terry Date as well as Corgan himself coproduced. Chamberlin also supports mountainous layers of guitar with his fiercest playing. This is a version of the band dedicated to early bare-knuckled form, with a few exceptions: Corgans grown into a more powerful wordsmith and his lengthy guitar solo explorations of yore are replaced with a trim, barbed textural approach thats ultimately more vicious. That is, until the centerpiece "United States" stretches into an epic punk-metal-informed sibling of Jimi Hendrixs "Machine Gun," with Corgans strings singing like explosions and twisting metal as he warbles about revolution. Much of this album conjures literal and sonic visions of apocalypse, but theres grace, too, in the blithe grind of the hopeful "Thats the Way (My Love Is)" and the melodic "Neverlost." Overall, Corgans captivating effort to mine both the spirit of these turbulent times and the soul of his defining band is a smashing success. --Ted Drozdowski

Album Description

The Smashing Pumpkins are back! After seven years, the acclaimed Pumpkins have returned with Zeitgeist. Featuring the single "Tarantula," this new sound is not to be missed.
Rate Points :3.5
Binding :Audio CD
Label :Martha's Music / Reprise
Manufacturer :Martha's Music / Reprise
MPN :138620
ProductGroup :Music
Studio :Martha's Music / Reprise
Publisher :Martha's Music / Reprise
UPC :093624997788
EAN :0093624997788
Price :$18.98USD
Lowest Price :$3.46USD

Customer Reviewssame ol.. lots of unmemorable tracks
Rating Point :1 Helpful Point :0
This is an entirely predictable and washed out-of-ideas album, and frankly its not that catchy in its compositions. The whole thing sort of blurs together without anything reaching high highs or insightful lows. Theres little here that really feels or sounds like anything artistically inspired being so focused on wallowing in doubt and the dogmas and retoric of angst and socio-political blah. Many artists have done albums with similar direction and intent but with much greater insight and impact.

Why?
Rating Point :1 Helpful Point :0
Billys back, and this time, hes furthering the Pumpkin legacys descent into irrelevance! Also, he brought the old drummer back. Unfortunately, he had the drum tracks written prior to assembling the remainder of the instrumentation, so what we get here is a bunch of awkward songs with a lot of grimace-inductive lyrics and a 10 minute marathon track Ive only had it in me to sit through once. Like all SP records, there are a few decent moments and songs strewn around, but Zeitgeist has them limited to the point where the awfulness suffocates every sunspot the disc has to offer.
But hey! Thats not the real kick. Why does this exist? What prompted Billy to pick up the Smashing Pumpkins moniker, regardless of what 3/5ths of the former band decided on? Listening to this, I cant help but wonder who this is directed towards. Are you telling me that fans survived through that abortion of an album, Machina II? Or is this just a treat for the fans(?) of Zwan?
The Smashing Pumpkins lost mainstream relevance a decade ago, and if this reinvigorates their fanbase, I cant say I have a retort to give.

The doomsday clock has struck, Billy
Rating Point :2 Helpful Point :0
I feel like theres something meaningful in the second verse of "Tarantula"--"We are the real/If real ever was/And just because/We are the real/They feel we have enough/We are the real/Cause someone gave us up"--but Im not sure what it is. They arent the real, you know only Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain came back. You cant make the Smashing Pumpkins with those two, but you CAN make a new album and label it a Smashing Pumpkins record, or so they figured. The result is a jungle of mordacious guitar work and acrid growling (whining?) from Corgan, the swollen Fu Manchu behind this whole evil plot. For Pumpkin diehards, itll be enough. But there used to be something to their music, something it conveyed that clung parasitically to the indie environment of the early- to mid-Nineties. In this fallow wasteland of an album, theres only noise.

Smashing Pumpkins should have stayed in the 90s
Rating Point :2 Helpful Point :0
Zeitgeist, oh where did you come from and why have you done this to all the loyal Pumpkins fans? Did you see that American Idiot did well for Green Day and try it with the Corgan as well? You have failed us all!

This album should have never been recorded, or at least not under the Pumpkins moniker. The song writing is poor by the old standards of the band and performance doesnt help much either. There are some decent tunes on the album, but is very poor overall. Songs like "Bring the Light" and "Bleeding the Orchid" will make most listeners shake their heads and wonder what happened to Corgans writing abilities. Even worse, the songs "Starz" and "Thats the Way (My Love Is)" will make listeners wonder why they bought the album.

In some instances, the album does shine in triumph, but these moments are few and far between. The instrumentation on "7 Shades of Black" is very good and sounds like it could have been on an earlier album, but the vocals on the track are terrible. The song "Tarantula" is very good and has very few flaws to it, while "United States" sounds like it could try to be "Silverfk" from the bands hayday but is ruined by "WOO!" Corgan lets out 3/4 of the way through the song.

The art work is bland and had a terrible direction, too. Photos of Paris Hilton? Why? The Statue of Liberty half way submerged okay, we get the warning of climate change. I would have much prefered to have just had the names of the songs and the necessary credits on a white piece of paper.

The better songs on the album like "Tarantula" and "Pomp and Circumstances" do make the album a little bit better, but not enough for someone to own the album. This is a great let down by Corgan who is trying to save the last little bit of credibility he has left. Too bad he may have shot himself in the foot with this release. Ill be much more cautious with my purchases from the Pumpkins in the future.

Meh, its alright
Rating Point :3 Helpful Point :0
People that compare this album to other Pumpkins albums are obviously going to think this sucks. Forget who made this album for a second though and then judge it. The first 5 songs here are solid. Doomsday Clock sounds huge and is my favorite song on it except maybe Tarantula. The only problem with the first half I thought, was that it didnt flow very well. The second half though, is a completely different story. I feel like United States couldve been done in half the time it took, Starz is painful to sit through, and the rest of the songs are pretty cliche but listenable.

I heard the singles before I bought this and was stoked to get it. This is the last time I buy something based off of the singles. I love early Pumpkins but I really liked Adore too. I feel like they shouldve kept going in that direction because it was a solid, new direction. Hearing Corgans solo album (which is mostly electronic based if you havent heard it), I think he wanted to keep going in that direction, but didnt think he could do it with the Pumpkins, so he panicked and went back to guitar and everything from there on became uninspired. I dont know, maybe Im overanalyzing but it makes sense to me.

I would definitely get the first 5 or so songs off Zeitgeist but anything after that would be money better spent somewhere else. Its definitely not a 5 or even 4 star album, but its not as bad as a lot of people here are saying.

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