Disarm is the best song though. I’m surprised it fared so poorly.
― treeship., Thursday, 10 September 2020 01:33 (three years ago) link
I agree that it should end after Mayonaise, specifically at the point where Luna ends.
― unpaid intern at the darvo institute (Simon H.), Thursday, 10 September 2020 01:41 (three years ago) link
I love this album but I skip "Disarm", sorry treesh.:(
― The nexus of the crisis and the origin of storms (Sund4r), Thursday, 10 September 2020 03:01 (three years ago) link
what's a boy supposed to do
― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Thursday, 10 September 2020 04:23 (three years ago) link
Dirty (a contemporaneous Butch Vig joint) is a few minutes shorter, but feels two hours longer.
― “Pizza House!” (morrisp), Thursday, 10 September 2020 04:33 (three years ago) link
I love Dirty but that's completely accurate
― unpaid intern at the darvo institute (Simon H.), Thursday, 10 September 2020 04:35 (three years ago) link
Tbh, "Silverfuck" is the only song after "Mayonnaise" I really need. I do really love the other nine songs!
― The nexus of the crisis and the origin of storms (Sund4r), Thursday, 10 September 2020 04:38 (three years ago) link
Oh wait, "Luna" - I do like that one.
is that a real song
― Neanderthal, Thursday, 10 September 2020 05:12 (three years ago) link
I think I've been skipping past "Quiet" since the late 90s.
― Sam Weller, Thursday, 10 September 2020 07:23 (three years ago) link
iirc "Silverfuck" is kind of a huge gaping hole. The band just isn't strong enough to carry off that kinda jam.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 10 September 2020 07:57 (three years ago) link
https://youtu.be/k6zFyT3n0wE
― Leighton Buzzword (dog latin), Thursday, 10 September 2020 08:15 (three years ago) link
oops, that's supposed to be Mungo's Hi Fi version of Soma which came out a few weeks back
― Leighton Buzzword (dog latin), Thursday, 10 September 2020 08:16 (three years ago) link
the end of "hummer" is the best thing bc ever did
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), woensdag 9 september 2020 22:06 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
― Monte Scampino (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 10 September 2020 09:13 (three years ago) link
Thanks to this thread just listened to this for the first time in idk 10 years maybe. Mayonaise destroyed me - everything after it is fine though. Maybe going from the emo epic of Mayonaise to a ballad to a prog epic to a nursery rhyme to a lullaby could seem OTT but Doctor Casino otm, I wouldn't want to cut anything.
― neith moon (ledge), Thursday, 10 September 2020 10:56 (three years ago) link
For me, this album is more about the proggy second half than the dirgey first half. But I was raised on Mellon Collie
― Leighton Buzzword (dog latin), Thursday, 10 September 2020 11:02 (three years ago) link
I think it earns it's length *and* overstays its welcome. Sometimes I'll skip Today or Disarm or Sweet Sweet; other days I'll let it run. Part of the reason I love it, is that sense of it never being complete, full of wells and alleyways I forget are there. I think it's more down to when I discovered both albums, but I sort of twin it with the first Tindersticks album in that regard: 25-odd years of listening and not really any nearer the bottom of it.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 10 September 2020 11:48 (three years ago) link
in retrospect, it feels like a transitionary album: the first half being a meatier, less-washy take on Gish, the second half hinting at the stylistic alleyways they'd explore further on Mellon Collie.
― Leighton Buzzword (dog latin), Thursday, 10 September 2020 11:49 (three years ago) link
I think I heard Mellon Collie before Siamese Twins and I wouldn't care to hear the former at all. Pumpkins is pretty much Corgan and Butch Vig doing Loveless outtakes and Silverfuck is the point where that runs out of puff.
I would only return to bits of Pisces Iscariot.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 10 September 2020 12:05 (three years ago) link
Do bands still release B-sides compilations? Or is that just not a thing any more? Thinking about the great B-sides comps of the nineties - Incesticide, Pisces Iscariot etc, this is a bit of shame
― Leighton Buzzword (dog latin), Thursday, 10 September 2020 12:12 (three years ago) link
I think it earns it's length *and* overstays its welcome. Sometimes I'll skip Today or Disarm or Sweet Sweet; other days I'll let it run. Part of the reason I love it, is that sense of it never being complete, full of wells and alleyways I forget are there.
Totally OTM. It's also interesting how some ppl here are saying Loveless; others prog, emo, Queen, Rush, etc.
I agree with this (in the context of the album) - BUT, fwiw, I saw them play the song live in Nov. 1991, and it was v atmospheric and memorable. Guess they couldn't quite capture that on tape, for whatever reason.
― “Pizza House!” (morrisp), Thursday, 10 September 2020 15:37 (three years ago) link
(Can Butch Vig not do "dynamimcs"? I mean that's kind of his thing, right - "loud/quiet/loud"? Or is it more "loud, with brief stretches where everything but the bass drops out"?)
― “Pizza House!” (morrisp), Thursday, 10 September 2020 15:39 (three years ago) link
(sorry for the typo, but I kinda like it)
I've somehow managed never to hear this album in its entirety. Beyond the big singles, I was never that drawn to the Pumpkins, in no small part because of lil' Billy's vocal antics.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 10 September 2020 15:41 (three years ago) link
He's been very open about his love for, and influence from, MBV as well as Queen and Rush.
― The nexus of the crisis and the origin of storms (Sund4r), Thursday, 10 September 2020 16:51 (three years ago) link
yup, merging the old and contemporary influences skillfully was BC's main innovation I think (along with about 6-7 years of remarkably prolific songwriting)
― unpaid intern at the darvo institute (Simon H.), Thursday, 10 September 2020 16:53 (three years ago) link
Yes, I was pointing out how it's a multifaceted album in that respect - it sounds like MBV to some ppl and Queen to others (and they're all "correct").
― Can Butch Vig not do "dynamimcs"? (morrisp), Thursday, 10 September 2020 16:54 (three years ago) link
To bring up Pavement again (heh heh) - it's like how some ppl were sure that their early stuff sounded like the Swell Maps, others called them a Fall ripoff, others said Tall Dwarves, VU, Wire, SY, etc. They were all right! And yet Pavement also just sounded like Pavement.
― Can Butch Vig not do "dynamimcs"? (morrisp), Thursday, 10 September 2020 16:59 (three years ago) link
revisitng this as I always happy to
Soma / Geek / Mayo might be the best hat trick of....any rock album, really
it's really amazing that even though a bunch of the outtakes are great they more or less nailed the song selection and sequence
― unpaid intern at the darvo institute (Simon H.), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:02 (three years ago) link
the only change I might be tempted to suggest just for variety's sake would be to find a place for Iha's gorgeous "Blew Away"
― unpaid intern at the darvo institute (Simon H.), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:07 (three years ago) link
the only sd-era b-side i'd want on the album is "whir," and god knows it doesn't fit and is perfect where it is on pisces iscariot
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:13 (three years ago) link
i love this discussion about sd's sequencing and length btw, i've listened to this album millions of times and i probably couldn't tell you what the tracklist is in order, every move it makes is kind of a surprise that also adds some new dynamic to the record
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:19 (three years ago) link
I would watch a movie-length documentary about butch and billy trying to select/sequence this record tbh
― unpaid intern at the darvo institute (Simon H.), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:22 (three years ago) link
re: the dynamics discussion earlier, idk that there's a 90s major label rock song with a more extreme dynamic shift than "Soma"; the quiet parts are genuinely, hauntingly quiet. I remember always being at the ready to crank the volume nob down before the RIFF crashes in
― unpaid intern at the darvo institute (Simon H.), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:24 (three years ago) link
album is also a feat of mixing cf. the layered guitar nonsense all over but for instance cf. the layered guitar nonsense at the end of "today"
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:33 (three years ago) link
amazing the drums don't sound like cardboard
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:36 (three years ago) link
also i realize billy corgan's voice is objectively horrible but that gentle high-whisper thing he often does floats over the guitar crunch really nicely and his voice is genuinely pleasing to my ear on parts of "hummer" "soma" and "mayo" and especially the verses of "rocket" (caveat i actually really love billy's studio singing up to a point and that point is machina/zwan; his live singing... mostly regrettable)
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:43 (three years ago) link
yes yes yes (re high whisper)
― brimstead, Thursday, 10 September 2020 18:00 (three years ago) link
Yeah - I have no problem with his voice on these early records.
― Can Butch Vig not do "dynamimcs"? (morrisp), Thursday, 10 September 2020 18:05 (three years ago) link
nice to see the enthusiasm for this record. as a teen i listened to it a lot but i never really burned for it. i just listened to the first half and beyond being surprised that i have it all mostly memorized, it really does nothing for me now - sort of nice to confirm that i'm just not into this band at all through going back to what everyone seems to agree is their best record. though weirdly i like reading all of these threads about them.
― Give me a Chad Smith-type feel (map), Thursday, 10 September 2020 18:19 (three years ago) link
also i just wanted to say that the drums on "geek usa" are insane
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 10 September 2020 18:42 (three years ago) link
jimmy chamberlin has secret octopus arms
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 10 September 2020 18:45 (three years ago) link
Corgan has that kind of voice where you wonder how he ever decided he could/should be a singer. It's an objectively bad noise a lot of the time and he must have a stupid amount of self-confidence/delusion to force it upon the world (I realise lacking confidence isn't something of which you could accuse Corgan).
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 10 September 2020 18:55 (three years ago) link
Ftr, I love his voice on Siamese Dream (and fell gradually out of love with it).
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 10 September 2020 18:56 (three years ago) link
My guess is Corgan knows he’s a bad singer but still wants to record his own songs. Singing is hard!
― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Thursday, 10 September 2020 19:13 (three years ago) link
I would probably enjoy them less if they had a “good” singer tbh
just imagine someone singing “my boredom has outshined the sun” straight
― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Thursday, 10 September 2020 19:16 (three years ago) link
Seems like these comps happen over on BandCamp or as special Spotify "Streaming Only" releases. These days mostly stray stuff gets saved for Deluxe Editions of albums.
The Wilco box set from awhile back was an amazing unintentional epitaph for these kinds of collections: 4 discs of previously released material taken from B-Sides, soundtracks, tribute albums, radio samplers, benefit albums, and perhaps fittingly, one of the last songs was the flip to an RSD exclusive 45.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 10 September 2020 19:31 (three years ago) link
i've posted this before but i never have any idea what people have in mind when they think billy corgan's singing is bad on these records. like, what kind of voice would slide better into these layers of sound? or better express that frail and bedazzled child at the heart of the maelstrom? are we imagining michael bolton or what?
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 10 September 2020 19:50 (three years ago) link
He sounds like Mick Jagger sometimes.
― brimstead, Thursday, 10 September 2020 19:50 (three years ago) link