Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Oh, nice more Smashing Pumpkins! Have never done this album end to end, so looking forward to the journey. Lots of classic smashing pumpkins on this one. Not every song was amazing, but an overall enjoyable album. very diverse but within a sound. 4*
Tonight tonight after the piano intro is a really cool ease into the album.
Highlights: tonight tonight, 1979 (goes so hard, timeless), zero, bullet with butterfly wings

I don't care what anyone says about Billy Corgan or The Smashing Pumpkins, this is a masterpiece of modern alt rock. There aren't many 2 hour albums I can say I've enjoyed as much as this. It's very raw and intelligent and catchy as fuck and Billy has possibly the most unique male voice on this list, which yet again has played into the inclusion of this album. The lyrics aren't pretentious in any way and almost read like teenage poetry but teenage poetry is sometimes the best kind of poetry and for catchy music like this simplicity just works. But it isn't just catchy, it's abrasive and loud and quiet and soothing and it has a gamut of feelings and sounds that other albums can only hope to achieve. It deserves its rightful place on this list because it is a masterpiece.

I went into this rolling my eyes. I like some SP songs but thought 2 hours was going to be WAY too much. I’m delighted by how wrong I was. This album was incredible and never lost my attention. I could gush over how dynamic and varied it is all the while remaining cohesive, but I’ll just leave it at incredible. What a feat The Smashing Pumpkins pulled off here.

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, well it certainly feels like it'll last forever. Double albums are usually a big ask, a couple of hours is hard to give to something you weren't planning on listening to and the link through on this went to the 92 song dep deluxe edition that runs for nearly 6 hours.

FUCK. THAT.

I hadn't really heard much outside of the monster singles this thing produced and I was somewhat pleasantly surprised at times, but it was mostly that nostalgic trip back to the mid-90s of my youth, and all I really came away with was that Billy Corgan is a madman when he's inspired, but that mad Billy Corgan could really use an editor.

a masterpiece theough and through… it is a bit long but I dont think there are skips on it. It’s all structured nicely and all the songs are beautifully recorded and mixed so theres that too. It has one of my favorite songs Cupid de locke also

I really wanted to like this album more than I did. There's some great songs on here--maybe some of The Smashing Pumpkins best--but two hours of his voice gets to be a bit rough. I'd rather cherry pick the songs on here than listen to the whole thing. 3.5/5

"Time is never time at all / You can never ever leave / Without leaving a piece of youth"

The smashing pumpkins is my #2 artist of all time on spotify, so this review is heavily biased. I have listened to this record before, but I don't remember it being 2 hours long, so I may have only listened to the first side in the past. I find it kind-of cringy that Corgan wanted this album to be "the wall" for gen. X, but damn if it doesn't come close.

I really, really enjoy the musical ideas behind the smashing pumpkins and their music. And I think this album rivals that of the pumpkin's more accessible album for casual listeners- "Siamese Dreams"
T2- "Tonight, Tonight" is an epic ballad about the inevitable passing of time, with a focus on making the most of the moment. Anything is possible tonight.
T3- "Jellybelly" provides a heavy wall of sound complimented by Alt-rock vocals.
T4- "Zero" has perhaps one of the most hard 'metal'-sounding riffs in the back, alongside emo lyrics that creates a contrarian's anthem.
T5- "Here is no why" has a genius guitar riff that blends heavy fuzz with the best parts of mathrock and heavier rock, to preach it's cynical song
T6- "Bullet with butterfly wings" complete's the album's run of 5 amazing songs to kick off the album and builds up to a chorus that preaches something that is all-too-familiar for those working the 9-5 rat race.
T11 - "Galapogos" is a soft-spoken song of admitting one's struggles, and fears of solitude.

Disc 2 offers a lot less in the form of obvious hits, but begins with
T2 - "Bodies" and continues a cynical vibe of hopeless romanticism, with the haunting chorus "Love is suicide," which may be a reference to Courtney Love, Corgan's ex-girlfriend, and the woman rumored to have played a part in Cobain's suicide.
T3- "Thirty-Three" offers a change of outlook, providing a hopeful wish that "Love can last forever."
T5- "1979" is perhaps one of the pumpkin's greatest singles, and is the track that introduced me to the band. It offers an unfaltering wave of nostalgia with the hypnotic guitar backing, and wistful lyrics talking about the "cool kids" sung in the past tense, and ideas that there is little to worry about for these kids beyond something as frivolous as social clicks and their respective rules. 1979, to me, offers a direct response to the other hit track, "Tonight, Tonight" which calls one to make the most of the moment, and damn if that's not exactly what happens in 1979.
T8- "Stumbeline" is a depressing track of misspent time, and past wishes, and connects to the album's theme of falling asleep with the last line "come around ruby, I could never sleep alone," and the name reminds me personally of "Thumbelina," a bedtime fairy-tale that recounts a girl, borne of a seed, that escapes an abusive marriage with a mole
T9- "X.Y.U" is a very heavy song, with references to "Mary had a little lamb," continuing the theme of sleeping, and bed-time stories with dark background stories. This track offers a reflection back onto a very toxic relationship.
The second disk ends the album with a fitting track given the theme of sleeping, saying "Farewell and goodnight" This album encapsulates a reflection of one's youth, and lessons learnt too late, relationships symbolized by fairy-tales, and the depressing realization that time can never move backwards. The entire album seems to suggest the universality behind the human emotion of sorrow, and spans multiple genres from rock, alt rock, grunge, heavy metal, alt pop, and art rock. The two sides (discs) of the album seem to suggest a theme of 'day' for the first, and night for the latter. Upon research from the wikipedia, the vinyl was split into 6 sides, including names like "Dawn," "Tea time," and "Dusk" to describe the first side, and names like "Twilight," "Midnight," and "Starlight," to describe the latter, although the songs are in a slightly-different order. This idea also goes along with the ideas expressed in the album, with more positive (yet sorrowful) memories of youth and nostalgia taking place in disc 1, for day, and more pessimistic ideas, fairy-tales, and other references to sleep happening mostly in disc. 2, night.

Although a difficult choice, I'll put 1979 on the playlist due to my personal connection with the track.

I love this record, and despite it's length, I never once found myself bored. I would recommend this to any enjoyer of music that has similar tastes to mine, that wants a thorough experience and reflection of music.

An easy 5/5

The first 3 songs will already give you the full overview what this double album is going to bring for the next 2 hours: Slow intermissions, Songs that perfectly balance the line between kitsch and art (a line they will unfortunately cross many times later in their career) mixed with full on guitar and drums driven 'Siamese Dreams'-style rockers.

Not all songs are of the same quality unfortunately and the album suffers a bit from the 'more is less' syndrome. It could have done with culling about 30 minutes of material, make it 2x 45 minute sides and have a perfect album.

4.5*

This is a great album deserves to be on the list and i like smashing pumpkins, but Jesus it’s just too long for me, hence I prefer Siamese Dream.

Tonight Tonight might be a good song if someone else was singing, but I really dislike Billy Corgan's voice. 28 songs of this I am supposed to listen to! Does it really need to be over 2 hours long? I'll cut you a deal, Billy; half the songs. First 13 + 1979 seeing as that was a hit.

This is a 3 musically. Taking a half point off for the unnecessary length, and half off for Corgan's god-awful voice.

On my review of Siamese Dream I said it was mad that the Pumpkins got lumped in as 'grunge', and how I thought they were way more interesting than a lot of other bands at the time. Mellon Collie only further exemplifies that point, because this album totally blows those guys out of the water. How many other bands of the time had this range and breadth of songs? This level of mad ambition? This insanely prolific level of creativity? Even their (many) B-sides from this era were so good and could have easily appeared on this album, or walked onto any other album of the time.

Am I biased? ....Yes. I came to this project with Mellon Collie as my favourite album of all time. I have the t-shirt, the record mat, the original pressing vinyl that I spent an absurdly large amount of money on. This album, to me, is perfect. I love it deeply on a very personal level. It means an awful lot to me, and I think it always will.

So with that said, I'll try and leave some notes with fresh ears...

I think what's funny, re-listening to this critically through the 1001 lens, I totally get why people might find it a bit bloated. If I listened to it for the first time I would undoubtedly be blown away by a lot of these songs, but I think I would likely dismiss a number of them too. Overall though, I do love the way this album ebbs and flows, and has various moods working through it. I like how some of the weirder songs punctuate that too. I love how grandiose the whole thing is. And that extends to the cover and the whole package. It's beautiful.

Sonically it's so good. The drums really struck me this time around, as they explode into life in Tonight, Tonight. There's so many sounds, instruments and vocals layered brilliantly throughout the whole thing. The work that Flood and Alan Moulder did can't be underestimated in that respect.

This album does things to me that I struggle to explain. Listening to something like 1979 - I love it SO much. It's transcendental. It evokes something in me that makes me so happy. As a nearly 40 year old man, I find myself losing more and more individual fandoms, but it's so satisfying to know that I can put this on and still be so moved by it.

I came here with the plan of hopefully beating this album and finding my new favourite. I haven't yet, and likely won't. After all, how do you top something that has so much nostalgic and sentimental value? Something that was there for me in some of my most formative years, and has stayed a constant in my life since? I will hold out hope though, because if Mellon Collie can be toppled, it'll need to be by an album that's very special indeed.

Music by and for poison type pokemon

The highs are stratospheric but waaaaaaay too long

Absolute titan of 90s alt rock. This album has so many bangers, it would be almost any other band's greatest hits album.

I'm not 100% sure it needed to be two hours long, but I'm glad it is. A classic of the "post-grunge" era, with loads of light and shade and musical variety.
I played in a Pumpkins cover band when I was a teenager, and love the songs as much now as I did then.

Such a great album. Often feel it has some of Corgan's deepest compositions. As I have gotten older I have started to appreciate Siamese Dream maybe more, but this is probably the most influential double album in my life. Top Songs: Stumbleine, 1979, Muzzle, Galapagos, For No One 5/5

first disc is amazing - second falls off. but the first disc alone gets it a 5

A masterpiece like this doesn't come along very often.

This was actually one of the first albums I ever listened to all the way through without interruption, so I suppose you could say it holds a place in my heart of some kind. I mean, obviously it's a double album, but it's crazy how many memorable songs are on this album. 1979, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Zero, We Only Come Out At Night, Lily, and many more. It's just a really fantastic grunge album that has a lot of variety. I admittedly seem to like the first part more than the second part, but both have great songs and are a joy to listen to. Getting some good albums lately, can't wait for another line of stinkers.

I completely forgot how great this album is, haven't listened to in full in years. Some favourites from my teenage years and at least one of my all time fave songs (1979). As with virtually every double album, it is a bit bloated and there are a couple of forgettable tunes. Some of the lyrics are a bit cringy now that I'm a 30-something ["God is empty, just like ME! >:(" for ex]. It doesn't quite live up to "Siamese Dream", in my opinion, but it is still a fantastic album.