In Site Magazine
Atlanta
Thanks to Jimmy for sending us this review.
Kind words are few and far between when discussing Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha's first solo effort. Sure, Iha has emerged from under the Napoleanic dictatorship of the Great Pumpkin, but is this necessarily a good thing? Say what you will about him, but Billy Corgan's use of dreamy dynamics altered the face of alt-rock in the early '90s, and that fuzzy edge of shimmering guitars is completely AWOL here.
This is not to suggest that Iha should have attempted a Billy Corgan impression -- after all, the whole point of a solo album is to showcase a different side of a musician's personality -- but Iha's transformation into what amounts to a sappy Carpenters tribute is too drastic to swallow. The songs on _Let It Come Down_ simply do not have any memorable hooks -- a big disappointment given the fact that Iha-penned tunes like "Blown (sic) Away" number among the best Pumpkins obscurities. Unfortunately, Iha's debut doesn't feature songs so much as ditties, making _Let It Come Down_ seem as if it was written primarily for Iha himself.
Grade : C-