Smashing Pumpkins Zeitgeist

I'm unsure whether an album from a revived Smashing Pumpkins is making me feel elderly for a reason. It's been noticeably less than ten years. Since the Pixies all sorts of alternative mega bands are popping their heads up. Of course, it's debatable if this is a Pumpkins album at all as Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin are the only familiar faces. The fact that both are collectively responsible for a huge amount of the band's back catalogue is undeniable though. They're joined by Ginger Reyes (Halo Friendly's), Lisa Harriton, and Jeff Schroeder (The Lassie Foundation) on this outing. I'll just tell myself that it took slightly longer than expected after Mary, Star of the Sea and feels better.

Zeitgeist is a mixed bag that neither confounds nor disappoints. Doomsday Clock seems like a pretty emphatic statement of Corgan's intent to have a familiar situation back. It could be heavy Mellon Collie, and evokes a cod apocalypse well. Bleeding the Orchid has the decaying, whirring arrogance of earlier moments. There's something of Echo and the Bunnymen and Jehovahkill era Cope in the song's balance of generalised pomp pronouncements and grinding epic rock. The image of "milk from the flower, blood from the dawn" slots in without embarrassment. That's the Way (My Love Is) may be a Siamese Dream clone. Listening makes me realise that it approximates one of the best albums ever, and that's far better than generic jilting indie with stylishly bad hair. There's quite a bit of Robert Smith in the wistfulness too.

Worst artwork of all time single Tarantula could be an obvious point to My Chemical Romance fans. Its one his author has every right to make, but I've always been less keen on the Pumpkins' Dragonball Z moments. Similarly, Starz echoes Zero updated for a glossier, foreboding time of publication. We're pointed to an "island of white noise", and "Dead suns rule dead air". United States has common ground with both Wishbone Ash and Cave In, for better and worse in both cases. Neverlost picks up the gauntlet from Machina's... ballads, with spacey and ponderous effect. The ability to lend the undefined serious emotional gravitas has carried over, and time and desire are balanced like the saddest things in the world.

Bring the Light reminds me of Blind Faith in suitably ponderous fashion. Come on Let's Go rocks like Zwan with the polish of prime Cream, and sounds wonderful, ridiculous and fun as a result. If Corgan is "anaesthetised" and "playing to the dark back row", it's from a huge stage with killer equipment. For God and Country reminds me of Enya and Prince gone very wrong. Pomp and Circumstances closes like Adore mixed with 10CC. It's completely impossible to take seriously, and very endearing. The string of consciousness stating, "We can fail in style. I can hold your smile. For a While", is pretty much the best assessment of Zeitgeist I can imagine.

An intermittently brilliant flawed album from someone with the potential to be amazing still stands out over vaguely pleasant mediocrity and boring lad rock. There are occasional moments here that I'd rate 4/10, but they're well overbalanced by several 9/10's. The debate whether this is a Pumpkins album is a fair one, but doesn't define its worth. Crucially, Zeitgeist is the sound of one of the more interesting commercially successful songwriters of the last decade back to playing in type. Warts and all, he's still worth more than any number of Pigeon Detectives.