“The last great double album. So great that it should’ve been released in the 1970s.” Billy Corgan unleashes his grand artistic statement on Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

Of all the grunge-era bands, the Smashing Pumpkins were always the most defiantly prog, and Billy Corgan’s ambitions reached their zenith with 1995’s swollen double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

After the alt.rock excellence of Siamese Dream, Corgan’s writer’s block was a dot in the rear-view mirror. His next trick was to create something even more grandiose: a 28-track double that runs the gamut of disparate styles and rarely buckles under the weight of its ambition.

With producers Flood and Alan Moulder and creative contributions – gasp – welcomed by Corgan, this album teems with perfection, lurching from the string-soaked sepia romance of Tonight Tonight to the metallic angst of Bullet With Butterfly Wings. 1979 and Zero also deserve a place in any essential 90s alt.rock time capsule.

Mellon Collie went to Number 1 on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell over 10 million copies. Viewed through a long lens, it’s the touchstone for any band looking to push the boundaries of their sound and its influence can be heard on records by Muse, Biffy Clyro, My Chemical Romance and more.

Mellon Collie was Billy Corgan’s grand artistic statement, a record that reflected his mercurial genius as the Pumpkins leader. He knew it too.

“We’ve talked about it as a band,” Corgan said soon after the record’s completion. “It’s a pretty amazing war horse, a great accomplishment.”

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Other albums released in October 1995

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? – OasisThe X Factor – Iron MaidenAdrenaline – DeftonesIaora Tahiti – Mouse on MarsLucy – CandleboxBoss Hog – Boss HogInsomniac – Green DayTragic Kingdom – No DoubtTime – Fleetwood MacFrampton Comes Alive! II – Peter FramptonDisco Volante – Mr. BungleRiddle Box – Insane Clown PosseScream, Dracula, Scream! – Rocket from the CryptThe Worldhood of the World (As Such) – NoMeansNoLife on a Plate – MillencolinOzzmosis – Ozzy OsbourneDead Winter Dead – SavatageIt’s a Mystery – Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet BandRagnarök – GwarStomp 442 – AnthraxBack in the World of Adventures – The Flower KingsWelcome to the Neighborhood – Meat LoafAlice In Chains – Alice in Chains

What they said…

“Mellon Collie just feels important. Alternative rock needed something this grandiose and diverse, whether the practitioners or listeners of the genre wanted to dispute that or not. Such a fully-realised masterwork only comes around once in a lifetime, and you’d be wise to lend an ear to its timeless tunes if you haven’t already.” (SputnikMusic)

“One of the major disappointments here is that Mellon Collie is far more masculine than their previous material. (It’s weird, but Femme de la Corgan has a real sex appeal about him, even with his head all shaved.) The songs rock out like old metal. And when you think about it, the Smashing Pumpkins are really the Led Zeppelin of the ’90s. Just instead of zen, they’ve got apathy.” (Pitchfork)

“The most musically expansive record of the grunge era (the raging Bullet with Butterfly Wings even won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance), Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness would also prove to be something of a tombstone for the era. After 1995, neither grunge nor the Pumpkins would ever be the same, but what a way to go.” (Rolling Stone)

What you said…

Zak Browne: This is the last great double album. A double album so great that it should’ve been released in the 70s, the golden age of double albums. For me, this album means September 18, 1996, my 20th birthday. That’s when I saw this band at MSG. The band opened with Tonight, Tonight, and I felt like I got an electrical current inserted in my body. I don’t remember the rest of the show. I think it’s because I was in some sort of electrically inserted dimension. Now I am approaching my 50th birthday, and I think about all the “tonights” that have passed, and the inevitable decreasing number of “tonights” that I have left. For me, this album is 10/10. It is the greatest double album of the CD era.

Chris Elliott: So much better than I expected. I’d largely dismissed the Smashing Pumpkins based on earlier albums at the time – lumped them in with most of the post-Nirvana morass.

This has the whole grungy anthems – even they stand up much better than my memories. The actual album, however, really comes into its own around them – the quieter bits – the commercialised shoegaze works far better than it should (okay, it’s more Ride than My Bloody Valentine). His vocals aren’t his strong point, but once the tempo drops, it’s vulnerable and flawed – almost believable – even Wilco-esque in places.

It takes a lot of influences from UK Indie, and then takes two producers responsible for most of the influences, and actually makes them commercial. There’s a lot to like. I’m slightly irritated at myself for missing them at the time.

Mike Canoe: I was one of many who lined up outside of a music store before midnight so I could purchase Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness as soon as possible on the day it was released.

I listened to it and listened to it again. For every song that caught my ear, more did not. I eventually grew impatient with it. It was just too much music, the CD equivalent of a triple album, to listen to all the way through each time. Of course, the width and breadth of the whole thing was a big part of the plan to annunciate Billy Corgan, not one of those Seattle chumps, as the songwriter of his generation.

Listening to it this week, it still feels much too much, but I am also reminded how good the good stuff is. Zero is still a thing of beauty, a song that imbues a spleen venting with the majesty and gravitas of Notre Dame Cathedral. Similarly, the beautifully raging Bodies still seems like a missed opportunity for a hit single, although “LOVVVE IS SUICIIIIDE!” may not have been the best fit for FM radio.

I remember 1979 sounding like nothing else I’d heard at the time, and it’s still a highlight, as are singles Tonight! Tonight! and Bullet With Butterfly Wings” But that was about all I remembered out of the two hours.

Songs that have stood out this week include frenzies like Ode To No One, X.Y.U., Love and Jellybelly, as well as softer stuff like Thirty-Three, Stumbleine, Cupid De Locke, Galapagos and the closing Farewell And Goodnight (with three singing Pumpkins!) I have even begun to finally appreciate the vast Porcelina of Vast Oceans.

The reputation of both the album and band suffered during the chaotic tour that followed, in which a teenage concertgoer was crushed at a Dublin concert, a touring musician died of an overdose, and drummer and secret weapon Jimmy Chamberlin was arrested for heroin possession and fired from the band. A three-year gap ensued until the next album, Adore, which most of the world, including me, wasn’t ready for, and I lost interest in the band in favour of the many alternative bands they’d helped usher in instead.

I give them credit for going bigger than many bands dared, even in the age of CD bloat, and producing several songs that are still beloved today.

Evan Sanders: Wow. If I were 10 years younger, Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness would be one of my favourite albums of all time. We’re all familiar with and have commented on the teenage and 20-something angst in the lyrics, from the optimism in Tonight, Tonight, quickly into conflicted feelings from “nothing here ever lasts“, “I’m in love with my sadness“, “the world is a vampire“, to “love is suicide“, and it just goes on.

What really strikes me after multiple listenings is how strong Melon Collie… is musically. With only a couple of exceptions toward the end of the two CD’s, there is no filler here. Compared to other well-regarded triple studio albums, not even George Harrison could do this on All Things Must Pass, nor the Clash on Sandinista! If Smashing Pumpkins released nothing else in their career, Mellon Collie alone would have elevated them to classic status. 8 or 9 out of 10.

Gary Claydon: Overblown, overindulgent, overambitious. In an era when the double album – once a vinyl status symbol – had been rendered largely redundant by the shiny silver disc, you had to admire Corgan’s sheer chutzpah in assembling the CD equivalent of a triple! Trouble is, there’s too much bloat here. I’m hardly being insightful when saying that cherry-picking the best tracks on Mellon Collie… would constitute an almost decade-defining alt. rock tour-de-force.

Ultimately, though, this is a California gold rush of an album – there are shiny golden nuggets there, but by the time you find them all, you’ll have panned your way through a shit load of silt as well.

Brian Hart: I was 24 years old when Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness came out in October 1995. Admittedly, I felt lost in the world as I had yet to really find myself (I’m from the suburbs of Chicago, and we kinda grow up a little later out there. Don’t judge).

I was a huge SP fan, and I remember this album having a profound effect on my life. It just spoke to me. I also remember this album being an absolute masterpiece. As with all Album of the Week picks, I like to go back and listen to each album before I give a review. I’m here to say this album is still a masterpiece!

Now I understand some people have an issue with Corgan’s voice or his arrogance, but what you cannot argue is his musical genius. If you have any doubt, just ask yourself: Which of his grunge peers could pull off an album like this? The answer is no one.

This album has everything an ambitious undertaking could ask for- piano, orchestra, acoustic, electric, industrial… there’s even a harpsichord. It starts with the beautiful piano intro, which goes right into Tonight, Tonight. From there, this album takes you on a sonic adventure.

It also takes you through a series of emotions. There are songs about hope like Tonight, Tonight and Muzzle. Jellybelly and Bullet With Butterfly Wings capture the feelings of angst. Galapogos and Thru The Eyes Of Ruby perfectly express the feelings of lost love, and Lily pokes fun at unrequited love.

Musically, this album touches on so many different styles, and each song is different from the next. Vocally, I feel that Billy is in top form. Granted, his voice is not for everyone. However, he really knows how to use his voice to express different feelings. Whether it be alienation (In the Arms of Sleep), anger (XYU) or desperation (Thru the Eyes of Ruby – the album’s best song).

I love how the album closes out with a five-song set that slowly winds down to the eventual closer Farewell And Goodnight. After listening to this album, I always feel like I’ve been on some kind of sonic whirlwind adventure. There aren’t too many albums in my collection that do that to me.

It is said that there is a loose concept or theme within Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. Some say it has to do with the “day/nite” concept. Corgan has gone on to say that it’s about the character Zero, which somehow plays out in the later albums Machina and ATUM (if anyone can figure that out, please educate me). The concept that I seem to connect with is it’s about “the end of innocence” (no pun intended from last week’s album pick). Corgan has said that 1979 was about being at the crossroads of life, when you realise your adolescent self is in the rear view mirror. Perhaps that’s why I connected with this album, because that’s exactly where I was when it came out. I give this album five stars.

Philip Qvist: So how do you eat a whole elephant? With small bites. And that’s how I tackle Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, i.e. try not to play the album in one go, but rather break it up and listen to it piecemeal.

I remember that when I initially bought the album in the mid 90s, in cassette format for my car, I only picked up the one cassette, so I was pretty shocked when the record salesman scuttled back to retrieve the second cassette. That’s when I realised that this was going to be an epic listen. I did eventually buy the CD, but I tend to listen to this album on Spotify these days as it is easier to break it up into smaller soundbites.

Siamese Dreams is a fantastic album, although it wasn’t without its problems, and I can understand why that album remains the first call for many listeners. It is much shorter and more palatable to the ear, but that said, I still maintain that Mellon Collie… is the Smashing Pumpkins’ masterpiece.

It is certainly ambitious, and it has a good variety of songs on it, from the quiet numbers such as the keyboard-driven title track, the quirky numbers such as 1979, the bombastic and epic songs such as Tonight, Tonight and the outright rockers such as Zero, Bullet With Butterfly Wings and Jellybelly. For sure, there are a couple of misfires on the album, which is to be expected for a two-hour-long album with a 28-song playlist, but all in all, Mellon Collie… more than holds its own, while side one is probably stronger than side two.

Whatever you think of Billy Corgan, you cannot deny his musical abilities and vision. At least this time he gave D’arcy Wretzky and James Iha more space in the recording studio, with the latter even picking up a couple of songwriting credits, while I maintain that Jimmy Chamberlin is a seriously underrated drummer.

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness is not a perfect album, and it has its flaws, but it is a far better record than it had the right to be. I’m flirting between an 8 or a 9 here.

Ed Reacher: Very similar to the Guns N’ Roses Illusion albums. If they just used the best tracks to make one album, it would be legendary. Some absolutely brilliant stuff on here but, as with Use Your Illusion, somewhat spoilt by overindulgence.

Nick Tedds: I struggle with double albums at the best of times as it’s rare that I don’t consider at least a couple of tracks as ‘fillers’ and imagine, to my eternal frustration, how the overall piece of work may have benefited if only they had been removed.

Sadly, I feel that, at 28 tracks and a running time of over two hours, Mellon Collie… needs surgery of huge proportions to separate the wheat from the chaff. It really is a slog to get through, and my opinion hasn’t changed from day one. Predecessor Siamese Dream was pushing it at just over an hour but just about got away with it due to the strong and original attempt at throwing a bit of light and shade around, which set it apart slightly from a number of the other popular but one-dimensional alt-rock albums of the era.

I understand that the songs on Mellon Collie… are intended to work together conceptually in a similar manner, and it is regarded by many as brave and ambitious, but it just comes across to me as overblown nonsense for the most part. That it contains a number of my favourite Pumpkins tracks, namely Tonight, Tonight, Bullet With Butterfly Wings and 1979, just increases my exasperation further.

Mark Herrington: More like ‘holy moly it’s an infinite album‘. Overlong, stamina-sapping, and yet, conversely, containing some of the Pumpkins’ best work. I find it best to listen to the gems on this as a bite-sized playlist and leave the other stuff to one side.

The cream of this would certainly be included in some of the 90’s best, but the burden of length and some lesser tracks takes some of that shine off the whole thing.

Greg Schwepe: Two hours and one minute. That’s how much time I knew I had to set aside to listen to the 28 songs on the Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness for this week’s review. That’s a tall order and a pretty big time commitment. Was it time well spent? Read on and find out.

We’ve had the whole double album discussion before when we’ve reviewed one of these. They can be all or none of the following: Epic. Boring. Focused. Unfocused. Varied. Same. And met with comments like “Wow, gimme more of that!” Or “Who do I see about getting one of those hours back?”

Al.rock Visionary Billy Corgan apparently never met a fuzz pedal he didn’t like. And that’s a good thing. And this album is not all fuzzed-out angst. I had bought Siamese Dream, played it along with the other 90s albums of the time by The Breeders, Nirvana, and Jane’s Addiction. But that album didn’t make me a fan enough to buy Mellon Collie… when it came out. But cuts from this were all over the local alternative, rock, and metal stations where I live. Pretty big crossover.

And anytime any of these songs were heard on my radio, they were greeted by me with a pretty big rightward twist of the ol’ volume knob. These included Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Tonight, Tonight and 1979.

Upon listening to this for the first time, JellyBelly, Tales Of A Scorched Earth, Zero and Where Boys Fear To Tread also got the same “volume up” treatment.

As I made my way through Mellon Collie… I found myself alternating between interest and disinterest. Alternating between really paying attention, “Damn, that’s good”, to “Oh, that one’s over, don’t remember a thing about that one.” And not surprisingly, the guitar-heavy songs got more interest than the introspective piano-based ones. Guess I like my Pumpkins loud and angry. Now, there were slower songs I liked, but to be honest, they didn’t grab me enough to look to see what the titles were.

This got to be a bit of a slog towards the end. I had the album running, and if I had to get up to go get something from the other room, I found myself just letting the album run, with the feeling that I wasn’t missing anything. Rather than hit pause and give the album its full attention. Now, while I never bought another Smashing Pumpkins album, I found Corgan and gang interesting enough that I probably read every article about them over the years and could almost list the various lineup changes that have taken place.

7 out of 10 on this one for me. One hour of fuzzed-out power chord-laden songs would have been good enough for me.

Dave McMullan: The best and most ambitious album of the 90s. Took me until 2001 to fully wrap my head around what Corgan was doing and what a stunning achievement it was.

John Davidson: When artists released double albums in the vinyl days, it was either a double live ‘best of’ or a bold, but more often bloated, act of self-expression.

Physical Graffiti clocks in at 83 minutes and is about as good as double albums could be. It just about fits on a single CD.

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness clocks in at over two hours and is essentially a triple album in vinyl terms. Is there enough here to justify the length?

The short answer is no.

Disc one contains Tonight, Tonight, Zero and Bullet With Butterfly Wings, which are three of the best alt rock songs of the 90s, but none of the others makes enough of an impression to make me want to play them again.

That said, despite the fuzz and squeals alongside more delicate, piano-led passages, disc one offers a coherent soundscape. Ironically for a record about agitation and disaffection, it rewards patience.

Disc two lacks the tentpoles, but no doubt contains some decent songs. 1979 is one of the few that cuts through and stands out against the background vibe. We Only Come Out At Night andThru The Eyes Of Ruby are decent, too.

The rest slide off the mind, not exactly blending into one, but definitely contributing to a mood rather than being tunes you’d want to play individually. The main problem is that by the time the second disc comes on, it feels like Billy Corgan has said everything he wanted to say. Life sucks. It makes you sad and angry. Repeat.

Corgan’s voice works best on the acerbic alt.rock anthems where it acts as a primal scream of rage and frustration, but on the quieter songs it can all too easily drift towards whiny teenager (albeit he was nearer 30 than 19 at the time). I was probably too old to be the target audience for this album when it came out, and thirty years on, that certainly hasn’t improved.

As is often the case, a single album of 45 minutes would rightly be hailed as a masterpiece, but at two hours, the album loses focus long before it ends.

The good songs are still as good, and the rest of the album is better than I remembered. But there’s just too much of it to take in.

Hylton Blignaut: Some absolute gems on this album, but maybe a little self-indulgent in places. I play Siamese Dream and Ava Adore a lot more than this one, however.

Final score: 7.09 (62 votes cast, total score 440)

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