Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

I know the Smashing Pumpkins for one song, "1979", which I like, but I'm also not a big grunge fan, including Nirvana. To me, it all sounds very "teenagery", immature, garage-rock-sounding, like a lot of 90s music. Probably the point, but still.

However, the music here doesn't annoy me like other bands do. There's a weird bland of hard-hitting distorted grunge erupting with energy, and softer ballads that are at times beautiful, and other times schmaltzy.

This would all be fine if the album had the decency to shut the fuck up after an hour. Instead, it's this bloated, over-long double (triple??) LP. And look, there are incredibly good double albums out there. London Calling and Songs in the Key of Life come to mind. But this is not it. There are some great songs, but they're drowning in an ocean of fine songs.

Overall, this was boring, not gonna lie.

Genuinely one of my favorite albums of all time.

The immense scope of this is everything that I love about "alternative" music, there is something for every mood and emotion. But wait, theres more! In an era where most groups were trying to sound polishedly unpolished here is a guy that actually wanted to make something that sounds great.

Sure you could make the argument that because of the big swings that there are a couple of misses (for me the misses most people reference aren't misses at all) and we could go on and on about his voice though it suits his compositions here.

The real gems in this album aren't the singles. This is record that rewards actually sitting down and actively listening. The more you really listen the more you seem to find as time goes on.

5 stars all day every day and twice on Sundays.

Classic SP album, love it

Känns väldigt lång. Ett flertal riktigt bra låtar. Samtidigt en del som man kan vara utan. Väldigt varierande. 3,5 av 5. Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Thirty-
Three och 1979 bäst.

Excellent album. 5 stars. It's my favourite album by The Smashing Pumpkins. It is excessive, but really good. Of course, it is very long but, in this case, that is ok. I like each and every track in this album. To name a few favourites: "Tonight, Tonight", "Zero", "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", "To Forgive", "Cupid de Locke", "Galapogos" (probably my favourite), "Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans", "Bodies", "Thirty-Three", "1979" (a classic), "Tales of a Scorched Earth" (nice aggressive contrast with the previous "1979"), "X.Y.U.", or "By Starlight". And probably a couple of songs I don't like that much: "An Ode To No One", "We Only Come Out At Night",

A straight up masterpiece. I don’t even care it’s two hours.

Well, I sort of cared. But I just couldn’t let that drag it down.

It’s 2 or 3 five star albums in one.

Absolutely love this double album

It’s a 10. It’s probably higher.

I genuinely don’t know what to say. I’m just exhausted & stunned, and I don’t want to force myself to type anything for too long. I just want to sit in this album’s conscience for as long as possible. It feels like a living, breathing personification of perseverance through a sea of roadblocks & struggles. If “Songs in the Key of Life” represents the breadth of a blessed existence, this album represents the breadth of an anguished one, with just as strong a variety & just as human a pulse to it all. I don’t know how Billy Corgan & friends brought it to life as potently as possible & with some of the most technically sound instrumental precision I’ve heard in my life (the drum work in particular is unbelievable), but… it exists. I heard it. I comprehended every single word of it, and I’m still stunned.

It’s a 10, if not higher. Go listen to all 28 tracks. Somehow, it’ll leave you wanting more. That is a masterpiece.

I'm not too opposed to the length on this one, they do a great job at keeping it fresh and varied in sound. Great pacing, too, as even if it's impossible to tell what they're singing, it does feel like there's a complete narrative within the whole thing. I enjoyed the ballads a lot more than I did the heavier songs though, in fact the latter started grating on me quite a bit by the end. Still a lot to like!

Standouts: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness • Here Is No Why • To Forgive • An Ode To No One • Galapogos • Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans • 1979 • We Only Come Out At Night • Lily (My One And Only) • Farewell And Goodnight

I love this album, but will admit the quality of the second disc drops a bit from the first. Ultimately this means it cant be a five but is still a strong four.

The singles off this album are insanely good. ‘Bullet..’ is a masterpiece with tracks like ‘tonight tonight’ and ‘1979’ not far behind.

This is such an ambitious grandiose affair it has to be on a list like this ❤️

Semi-regularly when listening to Generator albums, I'll have a couple of runs through a record so I can really make sure I'm happy with my marking. But when your (double) album is this long, that ain't happening!

Each of the records that make up this album are longer than I generally want an album to be (58 minutes and 63 minutes respectively) so my patience wore very thin by the end. Which is a shame because there are a number of tracks which I genuinely love.

I owned Bullet With Butterfly Wings on a cassette single and 15 year old me adored that thing. It's still a fantastic song all these years later, as are a number of the other singles from this album. Tonight Tonight and 1979 I also remember very fondly. But while I love those tracks, I never bought the record in its heyday and I genuinely can't imagine listening through it all again.

I will give it credit for being pretty varied in terms of sound (to the extent that a couple of times I had to check my music app hadn't somehow skipped to another artist) and when it leans into the distorted rockier end of their spectrum, I really enjoy it. But it's just so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so unnecessarily long.

3/5

P.S. Billy Corgan is an egotistical arsehole.

It’s rare that a 2 hour double album doesn’t elicit a groan or eye roll, but this is in a league of its own.

I've always had an attitude about this record because I think the title is dumb. But let's do this anyway! Because I have to!

So the problem for me with the Smashing Pumpkins is that Billy Corgan's voice is so distinctive and the music so consistent from track to track that at some point it all dissolves into an indistinguishable Smashing Pumpkin slurry. This record isn't terrible - while the music is samey, it's at least samey grungey rock jams with a compelling bassline, and there were some proggy bits here and there. But still, there is no reason in the world for an emo Smashing Pumpkins album to be 2 discs long.

3 stars

What the other guy said

URGHHH AAAHH YES PLEASE

-It has been one (1) day since I played anything off this album on guitar.

-It turns out, over 30 years of listening, it’s easy to memorize even a 2-hour double album.

-It’s truly a credit to Billy Corgan that he can write and credibly sing some of these cringey lyrics. I’m not being sarcastic. I think it’s a skill to pull these off. He truly believes it all, is the trick.

-It’s funny that this site is about to record SP as one of my favorite artists, when the truth is I think they have two masterpieces, one album I like a lot (adore), a couple B sides I like, and then a bunch of awful stuff. Is that a favorite artist? Or is it two favorite albums?

I love a big, fat double album. Take me on a journey, musicians! This was particularly ambitious and mostly fun. As with a lot of doubles, it's not all great. There's some brilliant songs on here though. All of the singles were 90s classics. It definitely adds up to more than its parts by having so much variety.
Great Cover Art.

In the nineties, I found the rock music of the time a bit alienating. None of the new bands really appealed to me, and none of the new sounds really won me over. But there were, of course, some bright spots, including *Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness* by The Smashing Pumpkins.

(t. b. c.)

Strong start, Tonight Tonight is an all timer
Very long
1979 is amazing
To long
Best tracks
Tonight Tonight
Zero
An Ode To No One
1979

It's too long and there's some content that could've been left behind. The highs are high but the lows are pretty bland. It's 3.5 stars rounded up