Labor

Long delayed new Pumpkins album is out next week.

Its streaming on Itunes in its entirety now.

Listened to it and here's the shocker. I actually think that its not that bad. At all.

Osiris3657

Nice. SP has been a close 2nd among my favorite bands of all time, I will give this a listen.

cdollaz

I listened thru it once at low volume and I like what I heard. I'll have to crank it later to confirm.

Throwing Copper

Only heard it once, but there's some pretty good stuff here. Nothing close to old Pumpkins, but I guess it's OK.

starseed1981

Its definitley better than Zeitgeist, but its not as good as the first free 10 Teargarden songs. The thing that surprised me more than anything about Oceania was really the lack of "rock". Its a pretty mellow thing down to its core. The production is also a bit to raw for an SP album imho. And as usual Billy's inability to edit himself has hurt the album as there are at least 2 filler songs in that sequence (Glissandra & Wild Flower).

Overall, a step in the right direction...but its not the second coming of Siamese Dream as some are claiming.

Dan1boy

Bored me to tears. No hooks. Couldn't get past third track.

But that's just me.

New Garbage and Metric are 10x better.....

meritocracy

I agree.

Damfino

Billy Corgan was on Howard Stern this morning promoting Oceania. The interview was great and can probably be found on YouTube later if you don't have Sirius radio.

Labor

Disagreed on both counts. Especially on Garbage. That album is trash in comparison.

After several listens, this is definitely a very solid 4/5 album. Works beautifully as an album and is very cohesive. Songs like Pinwheels rank among the best that Corgan has ever done IMO, and some of the rock tracks like Glissandra and Inkless feel like classic Pumpkins compositions.

cdollaz

Yeah, I thought the new Garbage album was dreadful as well.

superdeluxe

Best thing from Billy since Zwan. Not that is saying that much though. But still, a step in the right direction.

Throwing Copper

totally agree with that. Corgan should push that one to radio immediately and maybe the Pumpkins will become relevant again

dvduser6

Maybe it's because I haven't been a hardcore Pumpkins fan over the years, but I am loving the new CD. I really thought I'd miss Jimmy Chamberlin, but Mike Byrne gels very well with everyone else. I'm looking forward to catching them on tour later this year. In reading some of the recent interviews with Billy, it sounds like he might be considering playing the new album in its entirety, them mixing other songs into the setlist.

Dan

I've listened to most of it. I like it.

What's with Oceania, The Celestials, and Panopticon?
The band ISIS has three albums called Oceanic, Celestial, and Panopticon.

Has Corgan mentioned this reference in an interview yet? It's too obvious to be a coincidence...

Rocketdog2000

Only given it one spin so far, but it get's a from me! Definitely the best thing I've heard Corrigan do in some time.

Labor

I think the new bassist chick is by far the freshest addition to the band. her backing vocals really fit well with Corgan's voice, and musically she stands out in a way that Darcy or Billy never did.

Throwing Copper

Amazon has the album on MP3 for $4.99. I'm enjoying it....much better than I could've hoped for.

Mordred

Thank god I'm not the only one who noticed this. It's really weird. Three references seems like maybe he was stuck in a post-metal mood when he was writing.

gryffinmaster

It's definitely different, but the experience alone is worth the $5. I like it, too.

Strevlac

Wow. This thing is pretty fucking great. Way, way better than I thought any Smashing Pumpkins album recorded in 2012 with 3 original members gone would ever be. After a few listens, I can detect only two real stinkers on the record: Pale Horse and Wildflower. That leaves 11 good to great tracks. Even if it isn't near Gish or Siamese Dream, I think it's better than a lot of MCIS and most of Adore.

Throwing Copper

It's growing on me a lot. Just listened all the way through again. Only a couple of below average tracks....Pale Horse being one.

Strevlac

Yeah, it takes a few listens to sink in. I think tracks 3 through 6 the best things on there, that's a great run of songs.

It's even well-produced, it almost sounds like Butch Vig could have produced the album. I always felt that was a big ingredient missing from MCIS. Not to take anything away from Flood but a lot of that album was much too raw for me. Billy Corgan vocals and "raw" production don't go well together, IMO. Here he's still whiny but the production makes it somehow easier to take.

Anyway...what the deal with the whole Teargarden project? I haven't really kept up. Will there be another album soon after this one?