Where Is My Mind?

     The Smashing Pumpkins have reunited and dropped a comeback album, except it’s not exactly a full reunion and it’s not quite the comeback we expected to hear. With ¾ of the original Pumpkins back in action (front man Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin being the only remnants of the band we all loved in the nineties) 18 years after they delivered their last original work together (2000’s Machina/The Machines of God is a hugely underrated album), their new deliverance, Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol.1/LP: No Past. No Future . No Sun. is an all too brief affair that has no direction and false promises. Clocking in at just 32 minutes, the eight tracks that make up Shiny and Oh So Bright offer almost nothing to be excited about, and while tracks like “Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)”, “Solara” and “Marching On” are reminiscent of Pumpkins’ earlier grace and fiery angst and pretty much the album’s only true saviors, it all feels too vacant and life...

     Stephen Patrick Morrissey is good at many things, from the negatively notorious like canceling shows or entire tours without notice or spewing cringeworthy political and social commentary, and to the positive like giving us timeless music (solo or with The Smiths) that fill our personal soundtracks to releasing a damn good cover. Last Friday, the mercurial front man announced a vinyl reissue of 2017’s underperforming Low in High School , due December 7th, which will include a version of The Pretenders’s ageless classic “Back on the Chain Gang”, four unreleased original tracks, five live covers of some of his favorite artists, a limited-edition lithograph photo, and a portrait of the singer as a student. Optionally, the song will be released as a single on November 23rd and will feature Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “I Didn’t Know What to Do” on the flip side. Quite a cool deal for an otherwise sleeper of an album.      “Back on the Chain Gang” wa...