Review of Mellon Collie from RPM magazine - November 6, 1995.
Transcribed by Simon Coyle
What would compel anyone to release a double album in an era over-conscious of musical pretentiousness is anyone's guess/ Guns & Roses tried it a few years back but they mitigated the attempt by cutting it into two distinct packages. Now we have The Smashing Pumpkins, in the follow-up to the most commercially successful alternative release of 1993. Siamese Twin [magazine's mistake - not mine :)] had enough good heavy raunch mixed in with its psychedelia to overlook Billy Corgan's whiny warblings. Heck, some people even liked Corgan and we all too eager to sit out his rainy Sunday with him. As the title to the new album declares, rain has given way to storm and stress (two hours and two minutes of it!), though the album strays clear of the self-indulgence expected from the lyrics sheet by keeping firm to the resolution of making songs.
Not the most dynamic individual lyrically, Corgan speaks in the leitmotifs of sadness and anger, the tension of which is caught in the chorus of an aptly-chosen single: "Despite all my rage I'm still just a rat in a cage" (Bullet with Butterfly Wings). In the final analysis, Mellon Collie is hardly disappointing. In fact, it's fairer to say that it is easily the Pumpkins' finest achievement to date; the ambition of the product alone should enlarge their image to Pink Floyd proportions. Expect the whisper of approval among the faithful and only a few casualties on the fringes as the Pumpkins make the transition to kick ass band to bona fide musical phenomenon.