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Smashing Pumpkins Miss the Mark on New Release


     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 lifeless. Album opener “Knights of Malta” may have been an attempt to woo in a younger audience but fails greatly. It sounds like an Imagine Dragons rip-off. Shiny lacks imagination, personality, effort, and love. There is almost nothing to see here from an alternative giant. It’s a big miss. Maybe their time has come and gone. The Pumpkins, or rather Corgan, has been on the decline since reuniting the band back in 2007 with completely new members and this particular OG reunion isn’t helping much, at least not here. Original bassist D’Arcy Wretzky is nowhere to be found. Their reunion tour didn’t sell very well, with a good number of arenas reportedly being only half full. If we examine the work as a whole, Corgan indeed wrote some solid tunes, Chamberlin’s drumming is still some of the best in alternative rock, and Rick Rubin’s crisp and clear production is a true highlight. It just misses the mark for this.
     In the near two decades with all original Pumpkins taking on other projects (Corgan’s short-lived Zwan and shoegazey industrial solo album, Iha’s notable stint in A Perfect Circle, Chamberlin’s jazz fusion album), the terminal vacancy that is Shiny and Oh So Bright feels like an insult to the band’s legacy. Sure, classics cannot be replicated and that’s not the point here, but maybe getting back to their younger selves may have helped their cause. Shiny isn’t a complete throwaway either; simply, and sadly, it will require a few listens for it to grow on you. Corgan, Iha, and Chamberlin work well together. The songs that make up this half-hour album are well composed and standouts in their own right; plainly, it needed more push to convince us that Corgan and crew aren’t stale and are still worthy of our attention.
photo: www.sacurrent.com


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