Music Hound Essential album guide
Thanks to Eve for sending this to us

Smashing Pumpkins were among the first groups to drive through the alternative rock portal nirvana opened up during the early nineties. Then after Kurt Cobain died and Nirvana broke up, the Pumpkins found themselves de facto leaders of youth culture hungry for loud guitars and unhappy anthems. In his songs singer/songwriter billy Corgan sometimes whines like a spoiled brat and other times screeches in an exhilarating compliment to iha's grunge noise. Racked with personal problems almost from the beginning most notably over Corgan's tight fisted control and Chamberlin's drug use the Pumpkins held together and ended up headlining the fourth Lollapalooza tour. The technicolor videos for Today and Cherub Rock resulted in smash hits and shot 1993's Siamese Dream album well past platinum.

For an encore Corgan drew from such reviled rock sources as Emerson,Lake, Palmer and Boston to come up with a double disc concept album titled Mellon collie and the Infinite Sadness.Despite a couple of irritating art rock indulgences including a concept about a boy growing up the songs Bullet and 1979 were forceful and strong. But near the start of the bands North American tour to support the album touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in July 1996 after an alleged heroin overdose in a NEw York City hotel room. Shortly after Chamberlin was fired who had been in the same room and was arrested for heroin possession. The band has continued to tour and record.

What to buy: Siamese Dream is the (sometimes overwrought) sound of a maniac shrieking his discontent to the sound of sympathetic grunge guitars. When corgan sings "Today is the greatest day I've ever known" you wonder if maybe he has just murdered somebody. Mellon collie and the infinite Sadness is intimidating only if you can't stand concept albums in any form. Other wise its a decent record with a lot of angst and Corgan believably shrieking that he's a rat in a cage.