Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream poll

i listened to this album this week, it was fantastic with all those memories come flowing through. it has held up really, really well to be honest. i remember at the time thinking that this album would be the best ever and would be hard to top. not sure if the Pumpkins released a better album, though i did like a bunch of their later songs.

just putting this on now in honor of the poll here. will report back soon

wtf:
'happiness will make you wonder will i feel ok'

i must give a shout-out to those strange photographs what with the lyrics all scribbled on them in the booklet.

There is half an album's worth of gold. Most of the 2nd half is garbage.

Be surprised if Soma doesn't win.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

soma has that guitar solo so

^^

voted geek USA, though. Soaring epic followed by bludgeoning epic

two hours to go, looking forward to see what wins. could "Cherub Rock" be the dark horse?

i voted Cherub Rock.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

acceptable

2. Quiet 1
13. Luna 0

Madness.

I would've voted for Luna

pretty impressive how many more votes the 2nd half of the album got than the 1st half, considering how frontloaded the singles all are

"Quiet" is a proper tune of the rocking out nature iirc

somewhat related: TS: "I Am One" vs. "Cherub Rock"

Mad that I missed this poll, would have been unable to choose anyway though.

I love "Quiet" - wish I'd voted for it just so it'd have had a better showing (voted "Mayonaise")

man, i forgot how awesome jimmy chamberlain seemed once

he still seems awesome listening to this album in particular.

When I first heard this album in jr high I thought the drums during the solo in "Geek USA" were the greatest thing ever.

he does seem that way but it's been a long time so i'm sort of trying to re-calibrate my ears for 90s Alt-Rock Production (and Songwriting!).

I was thinking about giving this album a shoutout in the greatest drum albums thread...

Life's a bummer when you're a hummer

i voted for Cherub Rock, but that's because i couldn't pick one, but thought about the one that i hum to myself more than all the others.

tho someone was OTM upthread about Gish being a better album. that shit's in my car tape deck all the time.

It's weird seeing that picture at the top of the thread, the UK version of the CD looks completely different...

I voted 'Hummer' after a bit of thought, definitely my favourite of their mini-epics. I used to love 'Mayonaise' but I'm not sure that'd even be in my Top 5 now.

Yeah, it looks weird to me too. My cd is this one:

http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-2353183-1299605581.jpeg

Damnit, I know this is slightly off topic, but the guitar solo at the end of "Drown" will guarantee that Billy will always have a soft spot in my heart. How can he be so damn good and yet ...

Maybe it was the hair.

dang forgot to vote here for soma.
bang bang yr dead hole in yr head

that's "Silverfuck."

Happy 20th birthday Siamese Dream!

Would have voted for 'Soma'

I'd probably put Quiet third on my list and Luna just above Cherub Rock but otherwise I stand by my ranking upthread

I can understand almost nobody rating it as best on the album, but spaceboy is a really gorgeous and touching song.

Maybe the most loving song he's written outside of For Martha.

JIMMY SMASH

"Quiet" is a proper tune of the rocking out nature iirc

― That Dunkster! (absolutely clean glasses), Sunday, May 1, 2011 6:05 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

since i started drumming the "geek usa" drums give me heartburn

1. luna
2. rocket
3. cherub rock
4. hummer
5. geek u.s.a.
6. spaceboy
7. sweet sweet
8. today
9. silverfuck
10. quiet
11. disarm
12. soma
13. mayonaise

but i generally prefer the live versions of these songs, especially 1994 and especially lollapalooza. the band was on fire that summer and were never more aggressive, even during the Machina era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLHEitwq20w

also swap geek & hummer in my list

God that is inhumanly fast and precise

Anyone else noticed the font used on the sleeve is similar to the one used on TV series Murder, She Wrote?

yes. it's called Agatha. i see it fairly often in ads/signage/copy. i've seen the MCIS font in the wild, too.

timely bump, because i've actually been listening to SD a lot lately, more than i have in years. like i said in the poll thread and probably here, i prefer the faster/more intense/less staid live versions, but you know to state the obvious SD really is one of the best guitar/studio rat records ever. i blasted the 2011 vinyl reissue last night with headphones and heard guitar parts on Hummer and Cherub Rock that i'd never noticed before.

it’s a really beautiful sprawling guitar record. i wish there were more like it. (one record i really connect to it is jimmy eat world’s clarity)

Happy 27th birthday to this sprawling LP which left my Gish-loving teenage self somewhat underwhelmed and nonplussed; but which I now recognize has some kickass songs and is undoubtedly a high point of ‘90s major-label alt-rock (I guess it didn’t get a lot better than this).

fulfill the promise made of tin

man oh man did i write the lyrics to 'Soma' all over my notebooks in high school

haha there are some clunkers in there!

That pretty little gtr part toward the end of “Hummer” is such a nice, subtle moment (from a band that I don’t really associate with such moments).

Silverfuck has always been my least favourite SD-track. Too long, and just not a good as most of the other rockers on the album. Shares some weaknesses with Fuck You from MC.

Only makes sense as a live “indulgence song” really

They played it when I saw them in Oct. ‘91(?), before I had even heard Gish… I didn’t know the song, of course, but I remember Billy singing “I feel no pain…” over the bassline.

One thing I’ll add is that when SD first came out, those are the two songs I least enjoyed… “Geek” sounded too tryhard-aggro and hookless to me, and “Silver” too much like, idk, Jane’s Addiction or something.

So I think learning to like/appreciate those songs was key, in terms of the whole album clicking with me… no more “second half, time to skip” syndrome.

happy 30th (and two days)

In a dream, we are connected

Pretty cool acoustic set. From the comments, sounds like Pumpkin Heads have long been familiar with this set as a boot, but I never heard it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzwOwzGtiZw

yeah that rules! it’s amazing how well those droney songs translate to the acoustic setting really. In the late 90s I got that set as part of a cd-r trade on alt.music.smashingpumpkins lol