Smashing Pumpkins
Zeitgeist
***
It would be misleading to call Zeitgeist the first genuine new Smashing Pumpkins album in seven years. While it’s got the Smashing Pumpkins name on the sleeve, it’s really just another solo album for Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, who’s brought along original Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin but otherwise plays all of the instruments on the album himself. What the Pumpkins name really means is that Corgan has returned to the angst-filled hard rock that produced his biggest hits, after flirting with moody synth music on his dismal 2005 solo album The Future Embrace.
So, disingenuousness aside, is this cause for Pumpkins fans to rejoice? Well, maybe a little. Certainly those disappointed with The Future Embrace, as well as latter-day Pumpkins albums Adore and Machina/The Machines of God, will be pleased to hear Corgan back in full-on hard-rock mode. This is without a doubt a monster guitar album, showcasing thick riffs and blazing solos, and songs like “Doomsday Clock” and “Tarantula” dependably recall Siamese Dream-era Pumpkins with a certain added heaviness (the opening to “United States” sounds like a Black Sabbath song).
But “dependable” is about the most enthusiastic thing to be said about Zeitgeist, which is just as often forgettable and disappointingly retrograde. Corgan’s already made a brilliant return to rock on an album that nobody bought: Mary Star of the Sea, the lone release from his short-lived post-Pumpkins project Zwan. That album was life-affirming and joyous, with great riffs and soaring melodies. By contrast, Zeitgeist is gloomy and derivative, although by default it’s better than most mainstream hard rock of 2007. “Don’t you know we cannot die/We are stars,” Corgan sings on the stupidly titled “Starz.” He might want to reassess that sentiment.