Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream poll

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).

I feel Loveless all over Siamese Dream - mostly I listen to SP for the guitars and drums, tuning out the vocal parts.

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).

One of my favourite songs of theirs. I like that part a lot too. I think it might have been a deliberate allusion to this: https://youtu.be/stBOhNxLrbM?t=274

Oh wow... that’s cool

I've been listening to this album a lot... it's remarkable how much I've come around to an LP that I have been lukewarm on for decades. My remaining (light) criticisms boil down to:

1. "Geek USA" doesn't quite fit, and feels like somewhat of a (lesser) cousin to "I Am One" and "Siva";
2. "Silverfuck" is (IMO) somewhat tedious & silly (They are not Jane's Addiction, nor were meant to be);
3. "Luna" is overworked. They honestly could have just used the "Apartment Demo" version (it's a lot better);
4. The album's overall sound (production + mix) is more pristine / labored than I usually go for... but nbd, that's what they worked so hard for (I can always listen to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain for an, er, alternative...).

"geek usa" does seem connected to those songs but i think the bridge ("in a dream we are connected") puts it over

the end of "hummer" is the best thing bc ever did

hard agree

The inclusion of “geek USA” and “silverfuck” is keeping in line with the albums’s intense extravagant rococo vibe.. “geek USA” really shows off the Queen influence, I think, very “Brighton
Rock” on steroids

ha, the very few times I have ever played this record, Geek USA is one of the songs I always looked forward to the most, for the drumming.

morrisp, do you like pisces iscariot?

I liked it when it came out, yes (especially the Gish/Lull-era stuff). I've been meaning to revisit it... found a cheap copy of the Deluxe Edition at a record store a little while back; may throw it in during a long drive to a dentist appt. tomorrow.

man I WISH Jane's Addiction sounded like Silverfuck, i would probably like them!

Album should have ended after Mayonnaise.

no

Yes mate

this is one of the few overstuffed running-time alt-rock CDs that earns it, really feels full and epic and monumental. it takes time to get to know it. a real challenge for those weaned on the pop-song tightness of idk Nevermind and the Blue Album. and a good tee-up for MCIS being the only noteworthy alt-rock double album and also very much having the feel of a double album. you could maybe cut idk one song from SD, if you had to, but more than that and it'd be diminished in grandeur no matter what the songs were.

Yeah, it doesn't feel overlong, despite its hour-plus length.

This album rules

Disarm is the best song though. I’m surprised it fared so poorly.

I agree that it should end after Mayonaise, specifically at the point where Luna ends.

I love this album but I skip "Disarm", sorry treesh.:(

what's a boy supposed to do

Dirty (a contemporaneous Butch Vig joint) is a few minutes shorter, but feels two hours longer.

I love Dirty but that's completely accurate

Tbh, "Silverfuck" is the only song after "Mayonnaise" I really need. I do really love the other nine songs!

Oh wait, "Luna" - I do like that one.

is that a real song

I think I've been skipping past "Quiet" since the late 90s.

iirc "Silverfuck" is kind of a huge gaping hole. The band just isn't strong enough to carry off that kinda jam.

https://youtu.be/k6zFyT3n0wE

oops, that's supposed to be Mungo's Hi Fi version of Soma which came out a few weeks back

https://youtu.be/k6zFyT3n0wE

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

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.

For me, this album is more about the proggy second half than the dirgey first half. But I was raised on Mellon Collie

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

iirc "Silverfuck" is kind of a huge gaping hole. The band just isn't strong enough to carry off that kinda jam.

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.

(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"?)

(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.

Totally OTM. It's also interesting how some ppl here are saying Loveless; others prog, emo, Queen, Rush, etc.

He's been very open about his love for, and influence from, MBV as well as Queen and Rush.

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)

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").

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.