The Smashing Pumpkins

Earlier today I was doing some writing and I was listening to my ipod...it was set to shuffle because I like being pleasantly surprised when a hidden little gem works itself through my stereo speakers, a song that I might not have heard in a while or totally forgot I had, which is why when "That's the Way (My Love Is)", a track off of the newest Smashing Pumpkins disc, Zeitgeist, I decided to give the whole album a listen. I initally wrote the album off as being a sort of over-produced, self-indulgence that we ahve co0me to expect from Billy Corgan, and with only Jimmy Chamberlin coming back, it truly sounds and feels like a Billy Corgan project. So, with the absence of Iha and D'Arcy, it kind of feels as though Corgan was releasing this disc under the Smashing Pumpkins moniker in order to seel albums, since his previous projects came and went relatively ignored. So Zeitgeist isn't a compelling listen like Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness or Siamese Dream, and it is much heavier than the Pumpkins' previous albums, absent are the dream-pop songs like 1979 and Thirty-three, but it shouldn't be ignored completely, granted it's not in the same league as their previous work, but the album itself is worth a listen, so if you passed it up when it came out last year, you should check it out, or at least download some of the mp3s below.

from Siamese Dream:
The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm
The Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
The Smashing Pumpkins - Today

from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness:
The Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight
The Smashing Pumpkins - Zero
The Smashing Pumpkins - Here Is No Why
The Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet with Butterfly Wings
The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
The Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty-three

from Zeitgeist:
The Smashing Pumpkins - Doomsday Clock
The Smashing Pumpkins - Tarantula
The Smashing Pumpkins - That's the Way (My Love Is)