Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist

This may be the most worthless blog post you read this week. I'm not going to say anything committal about this album because I'm not sure what I think of it. Pitchfork says it only brought back one aspect of the Pumpkins. Some say it sounds like a Zwan album. Pretty much everyone hates the cover art. But some of the tracks are really good, there's no denying that. Some, however, are not very good. Very not very good. Take United States as Exhibit A of the latter. It's nearly 10 minutes long. Sometimes I think to myself, "Wow, it would be really nice to hear the long version of Drown right now, or Starla, or Rhinocerous, or Geek USA." But I'm never itching to get that 10 minutes of Glass and the Ghost Children. United States = more Glass.

And this leads me to one hard and fast point: I miss James and D'arcy. While people still don't give them credit for what they brought to the band, it's pretty evident now that they were bringing SOMETHING to the table. They kept things in check.

I have been a Pumpkins fan since 1992, when I was 12 and heard Gish for the first time. I used to look forward to getting the singles just for the B-sides. Ugly; ...Said Sadly; Hello Kitty Kat; these were really great songs. Most of the tracks on Zeitgeist are not as good as these. Doomsday Clock and 7 Shades of Black are very good openers - right up there with the Where Boys Fear to Tread/Bodies rockout on Mellon Collie. Starz is cheesy, we've been over United States, and the final three songs are nearly shudder-worthy. That's the Way (My Love Is) and Tarantula are good songs. That's all I have to say about that.

There was a time about a year ago when I contemplated going back to a former employer. Ultimately, I decided against it. You can never go home again, and usually things happen for a reason. Someone should tell Billy Corgan.