Smashing Pumpkins - ADORE (1998) - their last masterpiece - the poll

If you narrow "Adore" down to 10 songs, it's a concise, complete album without the Corganian excess. The bloat made sense on Mellon Collie, not so much here:

1. To Sheila
2. Ava Adore
3. Perfect
4. Daphne Descends
5. Once Upon a Time
6. Pug
7. The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete
8. Behold! The Night Mare
9. For Martha
10. Blank Page

Although I guess we could argue endlessly on which 10 songs it should be.

yeah man you cut out "appels and oranjes," that's not core

i also think "once in a while" should actually be on this album (and for some reason the super deluxe edition only includes a demo of it?), i just don't know where it would fit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWCw43Mdgw8

think matt cameron did the drums on this, they're gorgeous

it's just like, why did he have to wear a pirate shirt and a Gaultier in the video for the first single?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDo7FE4Mm14

Yay rock

i swear i've heard this before somewhere but i guess i didn't remember everything about it. what surprised me most is how well it would actually fit into the adore tracklisting despite being more sunlit than the rest of it

sounds just like i expected. great song, should've been on adore

Great track.

Reminds me of "Untitled" from the 2001 greatest hits comp... like, why wasn't this on Machina, it's betetr than most of it.

Yeah it's been a longtime favorite of mine since it crawled out in 99/00 or whenever it was (I know I have a few live versions around, including an Adore tour one).

"Untitled" is better than anything on Machina but I don't think it would have fit in on that album. It was a fleeting yet fully refreshing return to their early sound.

"Untitled" is better than anything on Machina

:|

i mean most of machina is ruined by impenetrable goopy production. i don't think "untitled" is a better song than "with every light," "glass and the ghost children," "i of the mourning," "the imploding voice," "try try try," "the everlasting gaze," even "raindrops + sunshowers," a demo of which just leaked on netphoria. it's awesome, and shows how a lot of these songs aren't inherently obnoxious, it's the insane way they were released.

"untitled" is still really dated sounding, and not early 90s like everyone + billy says, the production is so early 2000's. the melody is sort of siamese dream-ish? but it just sounds like a sparser machina song to me

I do like "I Of The Mourning."

note: i have two tattoos. one is of this album's title

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday July 16, 2013 5:08 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Fla Post Permalink

this is so heavy!!!!

fuck, how could i forget "Wound," a beautiful song (another one though where the solo acoustic demo - "If You Wait" - is far superior). "this time" is a sweet song about the band breaking up, extremely 2000's sounding. this whole record sits really well alongside Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, P.O.D., Korn, Creed, etc. the only truly irredeemable song on machina is "heavy metal machine"

yep. and idk i've always kind of liked how muddy it sounds

yeah idk actually maybe its how loud & one dimensional it is

'Wound' is a great song, easily one of my highlights of MACHINA/The Machines Of God. I'm with spazzmatazz regarding the album, actually. A lot of those MACHINA songs are as melodic and wonderful as anything Corgan ever did, just the production really doesn't do the record any favours. For what it's worth, I've never been a massive fan of 'Heavy Metal Machine' either. I understand what Corgan was trying to achieve with the track, but it doesn't come off well for a variety of reasons. The main one being that, at its core, it's not really that great a song to begin with.

"Raindrops + Sunshowers" is another standout. One of the more Adore-y tracks on the album.

I agree that the Machine production fouls a bunch of great songs. I'm very curious to see what the forthcoming Machina/Machina II megathing affects that.

*how, not what

ugh i just bought the box set

You love it. (Order arriving this afternoon, mp3s already delivered...)

hope the live dvd inevitably rules

Bought all of them so far, why stop now. Probably go pick mine up over lunch.

where'd y'all order from, amazon? the site for corgan's tea shop/panopticon is impossible to navigate...

it's all sold out from madame zuzu's anyway i think

MACHINA next... that's the one I'm really waiting for!

i heard there's a pre-master version of Machina floating around that's more dynamic/less brick walled than the original CD.

It has to be said the liner notes for this thing contain their expected amount of Billyisms. From "Appels & Oranjes":

"A + O" has the distinction of being the first song written for 'Adore,' demoed out during a session with Matt Walker, as other music was being put together for what became the 'Ransom' soundtrack. And here lies another story, as the famed composer I was to share the album's cover with had me summarily kicked off it. Why? Because he claimed the work I'd done was not 'music,' and he would not be sullied by it. To him, and to you, I say it is better to make original noise than lukewarm, adpated themes trolled from the greats. To he, I dedicate this hymn. For what if his shining, erstwhile baton refused to shudder at our collective rebellion?

The composer in question, via IMDB, was James Horner.

"You hurt me deeply," Corgan says, touching the giant S on his chest and pouting.

lmao it's like there's no way that last line is real, and yet, i know it is

is this gonna be available in a single or double-CD format?

yes

i cannot believe there's a studio version of "do you close your eyes"

i know i expected this but the live dvd is really, really great

The audio that's been circulating forever sounded great so I'm not surprised.

for some reason my cats are also really into it

#goth

oh jesus christ the building guitars on the live "shame"

the Appels + Oranjes demo (What If?)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the bonus material is incredible, along with the mono mix, this is the best reissue so far by a longshot, right?

can someone describe to an audio n00b the added value of the mono mix?

Yeah I was listening to said mix last night and it didn't immediately leap out at me as transformative. If anything, muddier.

some of the mixes are different, 'crestfallen' is faster

the original vinyl was mixed in mono for... idk what reason, but that's why the mono mix is a thing. it draws different elements out of the songs, though, i think (and is muddier yeah)

feel like i've definitely unnecessarily explained the origin of the mono mix in this thread maybe five or six times, sorry it's early

finally i can compile an adore-era pisces iscariot