Guitar magazine
February 1998
Of Smashing Pumpkins' members, James Iha is the most unassuming, generally letting Billy Corgan handle the spotlight, letting Corgan and bassist D'Arcy handle interviews, and letting the drummers handle the drugs. Let It Come Down, Iha's first solo album. reflects his place in the shadows; it has none of the bombast, amp cranking power riffs, or prog-rock affectations of the Pumpkins' work. The album consists of 11 light-pop songs about love, a topic that completly captivates Iha in all of it's adoring manifestations. He decorates the songs with gentle, often acoustic guitar strumming, while throwing in a wash of cello or trumpet or piano to lend contrast to the album's valentine red. Iha is neither a bad songwriter nor a bad singer, but he isn't particularly distinctive in those categories either.