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Amuzine Contributors MUSIC ON-SITE-LOPEDIA, Looking for a CD? Can't name that song? Got a question? Ask Sugar! |
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Smashing Pumpkins - Adore 
The fourth proper album from the Smashing Pumpkins is, as we were warned by Billy Corgan, a departure from the music of previous albums. Gone (entirely!) is the group's dense guitar-rich cyber-metal. In its place is a set of songs that are often based on piano and driven by synths, samples or studio treatments of ordinary instruments. Much of the drumming is also the product of machines. But despite the electronics, it is an intimate album. The songs are mostly melodic and gentle, even delicate.
Corgan, the singer-guitarist-writer-producer who for all intents and purposes is the Smashing Pumpkins, has previously said that "most of the things done with guitar, bass and drums are incredibly redundant". A pure need to innovate is not the only reason for the new sound on this album. Corgan is also known to have been frustrated by a tendency for his band to be categorised as a grunge act along with, for example, Stone Temple Pilots. Ironically, 'Adore' was recorded in the same studio where Nirvana recorded 'Nevermind'. This album continues the experimentation of their previous album and the broadening of their sound away from hard rock. 'Adore' is the latest instalment in Corgan's bid to be compared to restless innovators like Lennon or Bowie rather than mundane acts like Alice In Chains. When the Pumpkins appeared on 'The Simpsons', Homer told Billy, "Thanks to your gloomy music, my children have stopped dreaming about a future I can't possibly provide." But Billy Corgan is now 31 years old. His angst and alienation, the source of so much past creativity, is not evident here. Possibly he has exorcised his demons, such as his anger at his parents for separating when he was four years old, or his resentment at having to help raise his disabled youngest stepbrother (the subject of the 'Siamese Dream' track, 'Spaceboy'. 'Once Upon A Time' and 'For Martha' are about his mother, with whom Billy was reconciled before she died of cancer. Angst or not, his muse is still working overtime. 'Adore' is bold and stunning though flawed by a few weak songs. Some tracks are fabulous, such as the first single 'Ava Adore', 'Tear', 'Pug' and 'Daphne Descends'. Despite the album's strength, I'd worry that maturity might rob the Pumpkins of their edge, their power. Corgan already has his own answer. He asks on 'Appels And Oranjes', "What if this sound could bring you peace?" Farell Russak  |
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Lots of SA CDs to buy online at One World. There's also the Two Oceans Trading online shopping mall where you can purchase Springbok rugby merchandising, SA books, jewellery and CD-ROMs, amongst many other items. Any thoughts, requests, problems, complaints, praise or interesting and relevant SA music news, please email it immediately to: sugar@cd.co.za
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