Way back before the Smashing Pumpkins were superstars, right around the release of Siamese Dream, it was already an open secret that they were not a democracy; they were a dictatorship, ruled under the iron fist of singer/songwriter/guitarist/conceptualist Billy Corgan.
He came up with their sound, equal parts metal and dream pop, he wrote the songs, and, according to most reports, he recorded almost all the guitars and bass on their albums, masterminding their sound down to the littlest details.
Anybody that meticulous was also sharp enough to know the value of image too, so Corgan knew it was better to present the Smashing Pumpkins as a full-fledged band, not a solo project, and he came up with a diverse lineup ideally matched for the alt-rock '90s: he was the skinny misfit leader, surrounded by female bassist D'Arcy, Japanese-American guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who came across like an old metalhead on the prowl for freaky chicks.
They didn't look like a band; they looked like the idea of a band, which was appealing in its own right, but for as photogenic as they were, the reason the Pumpkins turned into stadium-conquering monsters was Corgan's outsized music, which was nothing if not deliberately, self-consciously dramatic.
His commitment to grand gestures was cemented when he disbanded the Smashing Pumpkins at the turn of the millennium, about a year after former Hole bassist Melissa auf der Maur replaced D'Arcy and just as Iha was beginning to bolt.
The group was beginning to fracture, but the retirement of the band's name seemed like confirmation that the Pumpkins were a concrete idea for Corgan, that they were a band that served a particular moment in time, and once that moment in time had passed, so had the band.
The very fact that he pretty much was the Pumpkins lent this move integrity, since it was clear that Billy could keep the ball rolling, ushering new musicians in and out under the same moniker with nobody but the hardcore being any wiser, but instead of taking that easy road, he decided to make a clean break and pursue other projects.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doomsday Clock | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 03:44 | 8 MB | 29 MB |
| 2 | 7 Shades of Black | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 03:17 | 7 MB | 25 MB |
| 3 | Bleeding the Orchid | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 04:03 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 4 | That's the Way (My Love Is) | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 03:48 | 8 MB | 29 MB |
| 5 | Tarantula | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 03:51 | 8 MB | 28 MB |
| 6 | Starz | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 03:43 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 7 | United States | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 09:53 | 22 MB | 67 MB |
| 8 | Neverlost | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 04:20 | 9 MB | 29 MB |
| 9 | Bring the Light | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 03:40 | 8 MB | 25 MB |
| 10 | (Come On) Let's Go! | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 03:19 | 7 MB | 24 MB |
| 11 | For God and Country | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 04:24 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 12 | Pomp and Circumstances | The Smashing Pumpkins | Play | 04:20 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 52 mins | 120 MB | |||||
| 52 mins | 371 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roy Thomas Baker | Engineer, Mixing, Producer |
| 2 | Jimmy Chamberlin | Drums, Producer |
| 3 | Billy Corgan | Performer, Photography, Producer |
| 4 | Terry Date | Engineer, Producer |
| 5 | Shepard Fairey | Cover Art, Tray Card |
| 6 | Amber Griffin | Hair Stylist, Make-Up |
| 7 | Stephen Marcussen | Mastering |
| 8 | Kevin Mills | Assistant Engineer |
| 9 | Chris Owens | Assistant Engineer |
| 10 | Vanessa Parr | Assistant Engineer, Mixing Assistant |
| 11 | Alex Pavlides | Assistant Engineer |
| 12 | Dave Rieley | Assistant Engineer |
| 13 | The Smashing Pumpkins | Primary Artist |
| 14 | Bjorn Thorsrud | Engineer, Mixing Assistant |
| 15 | Noel Zancanella | Assistant Engineer, Mixing Assistant |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |