Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Ein episches Doppelalbum voller Emotion und Vielfalt. Von zarten Balladen bis zu aggressivem Grunge – die Smashing Pumpkins zeigen hier ihre ganze Bandbreite. Einige Songs wirken überflüssig, aber das Gesamtwerk bleibt ein Meilenstein der 90er.

I listened to this very early on a Sunday morning while getting ready for a 100 mile bike race - so admittedly, I could have missed some nuance. Overall, a lot of this felt pretty similar with the only notable variation being whether the song had orchestral support or it was just a straight heavy grunge arrangement. Especially on side one. Side two felt a little more dynamic, but not by much. Billy Corgan's voice isn't especially good and, in my experience, it doesn't grow on you over time. Someone will need to explain the underlying concept to me and justify why this needed to be a double album. On the surface, it doesn't make sense to me.
As much as I appreciated Siamese Dream when I reviewed that record, I’m leaning the other way on this one. I appreciate artists taking big swings but this didn’t quite make it out of the park.

Fuck this website for giving me a 2 hour album with his nasally ass voice.If i get behing his vocals,i would really,love this record.Will relisten in a while.Good mix of genres but goddamn billy open your nose

6.7

Corgan’s voice has always been a huge hindrance for me as I’ve attempted to enjoy this band. Despite this, 1979 has always been one of my favorite 90’s songs so I at least wanted to listen that far. It was rough. I give this one 2 out of 5 stars, and that’s solely because of 1979.

1995, quelle putain d'année, Kurt Cobain nous avait laissé un an plus tôt, laissant le monde du rock alternatif comme un orphelin groggy, avec une gueule de bois carabinée et un trou béant à la place du coeur. Le grunge commençait à sentir le sapin, ou du moins la naphtaline. D'un côté, la Britpop anglaise nous arrosait de ses hymnes gouailleurs et de ses références aux Kinks. De l'autre, l'Amérique cherchait son nouveau messie. Et qui s'est pointé, le crâne rasé et l'ego gros comme un camion-citerne ? Billy Corgan.

Et Corgan n'est pas venu avec un petit single modeste ou un album bien ficelé de quarante minutes. Non, le mec a débarqué avec un monstre, une créature de Frankenstein musicale, un projet d'une ambition si démesurée qu'elle frisait l'arrogance la plus pure : un double album. Deux CD, vingt-huit titres, plus de deux heures de musique. En 1995, sortir ça, c'était soit un acte de génie pur, soit une connerie monumentale. Avec le recul, c'était un peu des deux.

Je me souviens encore quand j'ai vu ce double boîtier cristal, épais, lourd. Je me suis dit : "Merde, mais qui va avoir le temps d'écouter ça ?". Car pour écouter "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" d'une traite, dans de bonnes conditions, il faut minimum poser un RTT. Ce n'est pas un disque qu'on met en fond sonore pour faire la vaisselle, c'est une cérémonie, un investissement, une putain d'épreuve d'endurance pour l'auditeur. Et c'est précisément pour ça qu'il perd un point. Un 4/5, une note excellente, mais pas le panthéon du 5/5. Pourquoi ? Parce que Corgan, dans son délire de grandeur, a oublié l'art de l'ellipse. Il a tout foutu dedans : le génial, le bon, le moyen et, soyons honnêtes, le franchement dispensable.

Ce disque est un monument à la démesure de son créateur. Un pharaon du rock alternatif construisant sa pyramide sonore. On sent le contrôle total, la vision d'un seul homme qui, selon la légende tenace, aurait enregistré lui-même une bonne partie des pistes de guitare et de basse, reléguant ses propres musiciens au rang de spectateurs frustrés. C'est à la fois la force et la faiblesse de l'oeuvre. La force, car une vision aussi cohérente et jusqu'au-boutiste est rare. La faiblesse, parce qu'un producteur extérieur ou un groupe plus démocratique lui aurait probablement dit : "Billy, mon pote, le morceau sur la tarte aux myrtilles, on le garde peut-être pour une face B, non ?".

Mais alors, pourquoi 4 sur 5 ? Pourquoi ce quasi-chef-d'oeuvre ?

Parce que, bordel de merde, quand ce disque est bon, il n'est pas juste bon. Il est stratosphérique. Pour chaque titre un peu longuet ou chaque interlude qui sent le remplissage, il y a un hymne qui a défini la seconde moitié des années 90. C'est un album qui contient une demi-douzaine de singles qui auraient pu faire la carrière de n'importe quel autre groupe.

Il y a "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", bien sûr. Ce riff lourd, cette batterie qui cogne, et cette phrase, hurlée à s'en déchirer les cordes vocales, qui a résonné dans toutes les chambres d'ados et tous les talk-shows : "The world is a vampire". Putain, mais quelle entrée en matière. C'était ça, le rock de 95, une rage froide, un nihilisme poétique, une violence sourde prête à exploser.

Et puis, il y avait l'autre face des Pumpkins, la grandiloquence, la beauté presque baroque. "Tonight, Tonight" et ses violons qui s'envolent, cette batterie qui roule comme un orage d'été... C'était une claque monumentale à la gueule du minimalisme grunge. Billy Corgan nous disait : "Le rock peut être épique, orchestral, magnifique, et rester viscéral". Et il avait foutrement raison.

Et "Zero" ? Un concentré de fiel, un riff aussi simple que venimeux, la bande-son parfaite pour se sentir invincible et mépriser le monde entier pendant trois minutes. Ces trois titres à eux seuls justifient l'achat, l'écoute, et le respect éternel de "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness".

Le reste de l'album navigue entre ces deux extrêmes. La délicatesse acoustique de "1979", la furie métallique de "Jellybelly", les ballades éthérées ("Cupid de Locke", "To Forgive") et les longues plages progressives ("Porcelina of the Vast Oceans"). C'est un voyage, un putain de grand huit émotionnel. On passe de la rage la plus pure à la tristesse la plus infinie, comme le promet le titre.

"Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" est l'apogée et le chant du cygne d'une certaine idée du rock alternatif. L'idée qu'un groupe "indé" pouvait viser la lune, créer des oeuvres totales, complexes, et quand même vendre des millions de disques. C'est un album boursouflé, prétentieux, parfois épuisant, un album qui exige de son auditeur une patience et une abnégation rares. Mais c'est aussi un album d'une richesse, d'une générosité et d'une puissance qui forcent l'admiration.

C'est le son d'un homme qui voulait tout : la crédibilité underground et les stades pleins à craquer, la poésie la plus fragile et le rock le plus brutal. Il a presque réussi. Et ce "presque" est ce qui rend ce disque si attachant et si humain, malgré son ambition divine. Un monstre, je vous dis. Mais un de ceux qu'on est content d'avoir croisé sur notre route. Il faut juste prévoir la journée pour en faire le tour.

The first CD I ever bought. This album was kind of intimidating to me as an 11 year old, there was so much music to absorb, so much harsh dissonance and abrasive distortion, so many densely packed hyper compressed layers to every song, so many explosive riffs, such a singular and often repellent voice. But I must've listened to it a few hundred times, unpacking, exploring, getting more and more familiar with the songs between the radio hits letting it sink in and rework my circuitry. I haven't listened to it all the way through for decades, so I'm surprised how much I've retained and how well it all still works on me, swerving from sonic and emotional extreme to extreme, screaming catharsis and hushed intimacy, fuzz and fury, noise and melody, building pressure and easing off for a relentless 2 hours. The best songs on their earlier albums are better than the these, but this is insanely consistent for being so ranging (it touches on metal, prog, grunge, shoegaze, punk, indie pop, even alt country) - there are some gems buried in the sprawl and the guitars all sound so damn good.

Favorites: Tonight, Zero, Bullet, Love, Muzzle, Take Me Down, thirty three, 1979, Eyes of Ruby, Beautiful, Lily

Nothing about The Smashing Pumpkins has ever been for me. The garishness, the whiny nonsense and self importance of it all leaves me feeling nauseous at the best of times. Minus the vocals, I can get with a few tracks here in an instrumental sense, but two hours of this was an experience that never bears repeating.

I have to start by saying that when this album came out I was already a massive Smashing Pumpkins fan. They were my favorite band at the time. Gish and Siamese Dream were in my top albums of all time, and Pisces Iscariot was right there with them.

There is a 5-star masterpiece here. I love that there are elements of the previous albums, but also some real evolution into new styles. Unfortunately its encumbered by some 2 & 3-star baggage. Even more so it just needed to be curated better. If Billy was open to listening to anyone at the time they might have been able to tell him that. This could have been a concise 5-star legendary album with a killer outtakes album released later. Instead every listener ends up skipping around to only play what they like.
Mellon Collie. Okay interesting opener. Different is good. I'm here for it.

Tonight tonight. This is good. Sounds like the pumpkins, even if it's a little more chilled out and heavy on the strings. But progression is good.

Jellybelly. Now we're really talking! This could have been on Gish. Love that they're going back to this mix where guitars and vocals intertwine so much. And drums are relentless Game on!

Zero. Ok, fuck yeah! Not what I was expecting. Bring it!

Here is no. Why. Straight pumpkins. No complaints

Bullet with butterfly wings. There is no question that the sun rocks! Honestly though, it just doesn't sound like smashing pumpkins to me.

To forgive. Don't get me wrong. I like it. But this is the first clue about why this album is so long. In the past this would have been an outtake.

An ode to no one. Okay, third song so far with this new growl. It's not what I loved about them to start with, but evolution is good and so is this.

Love. I dig it, but again this probably should have been an outtake.

Cupid. Nope. Come on. What are you doing?

Galapagos. Come on man, that's two skippers in a row

Muzzle. Redemption! And worth the wait! Sounds like a continuation of Siamese dream. Even on a first listen, it's obvious that this is going in the pantheon of the pumpkin's greatest.

Porcelina. I mean it's fucking epic for sure. But it's also the height of Billy's self-indulgence. When I set that aside, I can get lost in it.

Take me down. 2 minutes and 50 seconds of my life that I wish I could head back.

Where boys fear to tread. More of the new heavy guitar and growl. like with the other ones, its not really what I'm here for with the Pumpkins. But at the same time I like it.

Bodies. Phenomenal!

Thirty-three. meh.

In the arms of sleep. Meh.

1979. Yeah I know everybody loves it. I'm just going to say it.... It's boring as fuck

Tales of a scorched Earth. I could do a whole album this. Not sure how well it really fits in here, but I'll take it.

Through The eyes of Ruby. Doing what the pumpkins do best. Loud, soft, loud. Driving base, relentless drums, exploding guitars!

Stumbleine. Nope. Leave this stuff to Jack White.

X.Y.U. Yup. No holding back

We only come out at night. Look, I don't mind silly. But if you going to do silly keep it short. Another one that's better left to Jack White.

Beautiful. Meh.

Lilly. Meh

By starlight. It never really takes off like it could, but it's decent.

Farewell and good night. Laughably bad.

Normally I would complain about an album that made me sit through two hours of music. Anything more than 50 minutes is usually pushing it for me, with 60 minutes being an absolute maximum.

However, not so for Mellon Collie. This album has absolutely no filler, which is insane for an album of this length. The only other double/triple LPs I can name off the top of my head that come close or equal to the quality of this one are George Harrison's All Things Must Pass (Gave it a 4/5) and The Who's Quadrophenia (Would give it a 5/5 if it were on the list).

All this to say, I'm VERY skeptical of any album that thinks it can sustain quality over 50 minutes. And yet Mellon Collie could probably have a THIRD LP on it and still be great.

Anyways, Mellon Collie. Absolutely a vibes album, and one of the best to ever do it. You basically have two types of songs. You have the Tonight, Tonights which exemplify the accompanying art of the record (Whether it's the album art or Tonight, Tonight's music video in all its A Trip to the Moon early 1900's glory), and you have the metal/noise rock songs. And all of it is perfect.

The two LPs are pretty front loaded with the best tracks on the record (Tonight, Tonight, Jellybelly, Zero, Here is No Why, Bullet With Butterfly Wings; Bodies, In the Arms of Sleep, and 1979), but don't let that fool you, the rest are still insane. The Smashing Pumpkins knew when to add little flourishes and sounds to elevate everything on this. You could cut this double LP up in just about any way to make a single LP, and still have a banger of an album.

Went into this knowing it'd get a 4 at least. Only thing is, was the length justified to get it to 5? And the answer is more than yes. If anything, like I said, they could have added more and I wouldn't have gotten bored.

There are no doubt some great tracks on this album … but it is way too long and by the time I got to the end I’d forgotten them 🤷‍♀️

I used to dislike this band because of Billy Corgan's voice, but it eventually grew on me. This album takes you on a full journey, an amazing listen. I would say this is a masterpiece! It tackles many genres and all of them are done extremely well. And even though it's very long, it didn't bore me at all. It was great from start to finish.

Instant 5 stars, cannot judge unbiasedly, have loved for decades.

Unpopular opinion, but the heavier songs are much, much, much better than the mellow songs on this record. They allow the drummer to really display his talent, and the crunchy guitars kind of drown out Billy's whine (most of the time). In contrast, everything (lyrics, music, enjoyment) is drowned out by Billy's whine on the mellow/emotional songs, all of which are supremely skippable. In fact, it seems at this point in the band's career, Billy Corgan has decided that the focal point of every song should be his quite frankly subpar vocals. Overall, while the record is ambitious and has a lot of great moments, the enormous run-time and the vocal slop don't just prevent this record from achieving greatness - they make it a genuine disappointment.

2.0/5.0: Disappointing

this is like a worse version of the bealtes white album. this is probably some of the pumpkins best work thrown together some some decent filler to make for an incredibly bloated album. i actually really enjoyed the majority of this and i think if it was two separate albums they would both 5 stars even with corgan singing. that said listening to him for two hours is just too much.

More like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Screeching

Started off alright. The guys voice soon pissed me off so bad - was like nails on a chalkboard. I knew 2 of these songs beforehand, can't say I particulary liked them

There was no need at all for this album to be 2 hours long. Absolutely no need

2 ⭐️

A sprawling, ambitious double album that showcases great band chemistry and moments of brilliance, 𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 is both impressive and frustrating. Billy Corgan’s voice works beautifully on some tracks, adding vulnerability and emotion, but on others it veers into the outright annoying. The genre mix — ranging from piano ballads to grunge, metal, and dreamy alt-rock — feels bold but also uneven. And yes, Corgan’s ego is on full display here, resulting in a 122-minute marathon that could have easily been trimmed to something sharper and more focused. A flawed epic, but not without its charm.

I liked most of what I had time to listen to. After about an hour I felt I’d heard all I needed to.

It had '1979'. It has 'Tonight Tonight'. It has 'Bullet with Butterfly Wings'. I literally couldn't ask for more! And it has two hours more!!!

As someone who bought Siamese Dream when it came out but thought it could stand to lose a couple of tracks, I've always been a bit daunted by the idea of a Smashing Pumpkins double album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was pretty much what I expected - there are some good songs here, but it would have just worked better for me if it wasn't so very, very long.

Just cos you can write them doesn't mean they need to be on the album. There's some ok mid 90s 'alt rock' tunes swimming alongside the mediocre ones. It's just all a bit too much Billy Corgan in one sitting for my ears. once I laughed at those lyrics for Zero it was quite hard to take the rest of it seriously.