The Disappointed Disappear Like They Were Never Here

The Smashing Pumpkins “7 Shades of Black” – My initial impression of Zeitgeist was rather unfavorable, but I’ve come around to liking about half of the record, but only because I’ve been listening to it with much lower expectations. That’s not the same as having no expectations — instead of comparing it to the Pumpkins’ back catalog, I’m thinking of the music in the context of rock music in 2007. At this point in time, Corgan can barely compete with his younger self, but he and Jimmy Chamberlain are still capable of blowing away the majority of a younger generation whose version of hard rock is either laughably tepid or suffocatingly stiff. “7 Shades of Black” may be a poor man’s version of “Bodies” from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, but it’s still a strong piece of work with a sharp hook and an urgent momentum, which is a lot more than what most bands can pull off these days. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

The Smashing Pumpkins “Frail and Bedazzled” – The most basic appeal of the Smashing Pumpkins comes from the way Billy Corgan strips out the dull machismo from hard rock and replaces it with sensitive androgyny and ecstatic spirituality. Like a majority of the rock stars of the early ’90s, Corgan rebelled against the dude-ness of his own genre, but thanks to the unavoidable femininity of his voice and his soft baby face, he was able to depart from tradition more dramatically than the more obviously masculine likes of Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder. Unsurprisingly, one of the most dramatic, joyous, and definitive moments in the entire sprawling Pumpkins catalog comes on “Frail and Bedazzled” when he declares “all I wanted was to be a man / but since I gave up / I FEEL FREE! / I FEEL FREE! / I FEEL FREE! / I FEEL FREE!,” which each iteration of those last three words seeming increasingly emphatic and liberating. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

The Smashing Pumpkins “Geek USA” – So why is that the Smashing Pumpkins have so little in the way of a legacy, at least in terms of influencing a younger generation of rock acts? I can hear some traces of the more histrionic, teen-centric Mellon Collie incarnation of the band in some mall emo acts, but given its former ubiquity, it’s very rare to hear any bands now that noticeably borrow from the distinct aesthetic of the Pumpkins circa Siamese Dream. Sure, there are bands that rock out in the interest of “spirituality,” but those are usually either Christian acts who mimic the trappings of genre rather than fully inhabit and subvert them, or po-faced clowns running with the uplifting, non-denomination grandeur of U2. The Pumpkins’ most successful rockers tapped into something sublime, but also a bit ridiculous and fun in its whole-hearted embrace of adolescent emotional turmoil and unapologetic bombast. The songs may have been meticulously crafted in the studio, but they feel remarkably spontaneous and alive, capturing the sheer pleasure of rocking out in a small room despite a billion overdubs. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: Two teenage girls were engaged in a fierce battle to the death, high atop the Empire State Building. Their names were Lyric and Grace, and both were famous on the internet.