MELLON COLLIE AND THE INFINITE SADNESS
Review of MCISthe The Calgary Sun - November 9, 1995.
Transcribed by Simon Coyle
It was another great year for music, but I can surely say The Smashing Pumpkins' epic Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is the best. The album's 28 songs clock in at more than two hours, with the first disc,
Dawn to Dusk, composed of the Pumpkins' traditional sound, while the second disc, Twilight to Starlight, shows the band's more eclectic experimental side. Dawn to Dusk begins with a beautiful piano instrumental composed by lead Pumpkin Billy Corgan. The next track, Tonight Tonight could easily become the next Disarm, while the third track, Jellybelly, is a blistering rocker.
Twilight to Starlight starts out on a darker note than Dawn to Dusk with Where Boys Fear to Tread and Bodies, but quiets down a little bit with the soothing thirty-Three and In the Arms of Sleep.
The Smashing Pumpkins create ingenius soundscapes of psychedelic harmonies wrapped up in noise. Basic Pumpkins sound is sweet chiming guitars that turn nasty over Corgan's pleading vocals and Jimmy Chamberlin's pounding drumwork, drenched in feedback and distortion and yet it's oddly beautiful.
- Mark Hamilton