Bang Bang You're Dead... POLL In Your Head - ILM Artist Poll #87 - SMASHING PUMPKINS - Results

MCIS was one of the first things I ever learned on piano.

I guess we should be grateful "Disarm" avoided getting the Johnny Cash American Records treatment

Would have been pretty great in fairness.

MCIS was one of the first things I ever learned on piano.

X.Y.U. - that bit where he sings 'BWABEEEH GOODBYYYE (bye bye)' is pure lol. That song is just lol-a-minute but also kind of scary.

https://i.imgur.com/3UdrHqL.jpg
59. Suffer
128 points, 5 votes
From: Gish, 1991

ah good some Gish action. I don't remember how this one goes, so this bodes well for the rest of the poll

great song, it still pops into my head all the time

the "too late to discover" secret chorus buried in that song is kinda the peak of psychedelic pumpkins for me (well after all of "snail" and "rhinoceros")

the only pumpkins song to feature a psychedelic slide whistle solo?

oh it's this one. it's great. makes me think of sea merchants in top down RPGs

Disarm at 60 is kind of wild. It's their 6th most popular song on Spotify and, like it or not, one of the iconic Pumpkins songs.

bead curtains and hookah pipes in aural form

xp ILM has always been contrary. Like when we voted 'Good Vibrations' as the worst song on Smiley Smile

"disarm" is also one of their best videos imo

for a band whose fame coincided with the peak of '90s mtv most of their music videos are kinda weird fiascos though

Disarm was the first song I learned on guitar (MCIS was the second) so I'll always have a soft spot for it.

'Glass and the Ghost Children' is a stunner - one of the tracks on MACHINA that works, although I have a preference for the first part. 'Farewell and Goodnight' is pretty, but I never find myself listening to it as a standalone track, always in context. 'x.y.u.' was a grower for me back when I first heard the album, but fucking love it now.

Mellon Collie and The Beatles both have this "every song given its own distinct sonic treatment" feel, as Brad says, but I think Mellon Collie is more excessive and a better record. There's a lot of stuff on The Beatles which is tossed off fluff, but Corgan for the most part just can't leave things alone, and that's why Mellon Collie works for me. Quantity, diversity and quality.

I sometimes get the one-word song titles on Gish mixed up but yeah I like this one a lot (although I heard the Tricky song that samples it first so it took a bit of getting used to).

'Suffer' is great - love the drumming and the way everything generally sounds on the track. I rate the two songs after it on Gish higher, though!

although I heard the Tricky song that samples it first

i COMPLETELY forgot about this

re: White Album comparisons Corgan's said that his goal with MCIS was more The Wall rather than The White Album

https://i.imgur.com/59BeivE.jpg
58. Tear
134 points, 4 votes
From: Adore, 1998

https://i.imgur.com/M4Xrzvi.jpg
58. Real Love
134 points, 7 votes
From: Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music, 2000

He should have lied and told everyone it was a concept album, just to see what crazy meanings the hardcore would read into it while trying to figure out what the non-existent concept was.

Ah, not a huge fan of either of these, although the riff on 'Tear' is quite nice.

He should have lied and told everyone it was a concept album, just to see what crazy meanings the hardcore would read into it while trying to figure out what the non-existent concept was.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Thursday, April 5, 2018 9:00 AM (eighteen seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean it's not like machina's concept is meaningful or interesting so he essentially did this later for a different album

overdriven machina-style production really works on "real love," which is prob somewhat due to how much sunnier it is than anything that actually made the album

With Every Light isn't sunny enough for you?

At least MACHINA has a concept, though!

Hard to break through the Machina production on first listen. I think there's a nice synth in there.

Yeah, wtf, 'With Every Light' is one of their sunniest ever tracks.

This is all for the meantime, though there will be more some time later today.

I love Real Love, the best of the noisy Machina II production and reminiscent of YMMR-era MBV in its swirling rush. On the other hand, Tear is one of the weaker tracks on Adore and definitely two minutes too long - it'd be fine if that synth interlude was the outro.

With Every Light isn't sunny enough for you?

― Fetchboy, Thursday, April 5, 2018 9:04 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sunnier with a ton of distorted guitars, fine ("with every light" is a v sad song imo)

"Real Love" made my ballot. One of their most shoegaze-like tracks. It glistens.

like it or not, one of the iconic Pumpkins songs

I'm guessing enough of us were in the "not" camp.

"tear" was the first album track i enjoyed on adore before the rest of the record started making sense me, so i'll always love it even if i think it's the most obvious and obnoxious six minutes on the record

Originally written for Lost Highway but rejected by Lynch

the synth interlude is one of my favorite moments in the whole discography though. a lot of adore tracks feel like they become different songs in their bridges ("daphne," "behold the nightmare," "blank page" and this one)

ha, I'm just now seeing the pissy electric Disarm from the 1994 VMAs, which was apparently a 'fuck you' to MTV for forcing them to play that song

They did the same version on that English show The Word in early 94. They could’ve played anything they wanted (Green Day played Armatage Shanks the same night, a song that wouldn’t be released for another year). I look at that Disarm performance as the climax of the band/Billy’s attitude during Lollapalooza, which yes, is m/l “FUCK YOU”

they've always been a v antagonistic live band

i think it sucks for the most part (billy's live voice is intolerable between 94-... zwan?)

Also, it was banned from Top of the Pops for lyrical content advocating the cutting of little children?

but i love the arrangements on the adore tour so much that i suffer through it xp

a 'fuck you' to MTV for forcing them to play that song

Haha wtf

enjoying brad's alt.collie. good b-side inclusion, and the album really does benefit from fewer startling transitions. there are mid-track startling transitions anyway.

happy that disarm placed anywhere. was a necessary struggle to keep it on my ballot. lol @ flappy's #1, though I suppose he would choose the aperture to his favorite album which he can flap through.

and I love MCIS the song, too. not trying to criticize the choice.

'Real Love' is a really nice proto-Zwan track; 'Tear' I'm really not so keen on, too plodding, definitely one I'd cut from Adore.

"Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" is so mournful, I once read something someone said about how it sounds like the end of a long, sad play- but it's the beginning of a two hour double album. the end is built into the beginning. as an overture, a thesis statement for the album's concept - that life is happy, life is sad, life is glorious, life is terrible, and everything in between - Billy somehow managed to convey all of that in less than 3 minutes on an instrument he wasn't even proficient in. it's so evocative on its own but also in the context of where the band was at in late 94/95 - they sensed the alt rock/grunge boom coming to an end, and MCIS was going to be their final rock statement before they moved on. and knowing everything horrible and amazing that happened in 1996, the song gains even more resonance. but above all, nothing else has spoken to me like this song as a summation of what life is like. wonderful, horrible, blessed, cursed, and won. nowhere and forever. without a care in this whole world. the beautiful, the tragic. mellon collie and the infinite sadness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p4UML8qJNc

did he write it in a higher key or is the pitch off bc of the tape speed on that demo