ALBUM OF THE YEAR - SHORT-LIST .... ALBUM #11 - November 2020





A new Smashing Pumpkins album is always likely to be a strong contender for an Album Of The Month, and so it proved to be in November 2020, but I do still have some reservations.... 

There is a side-helping of bollocks surrounding this album - its something that comes with the territory. There is a 5 part animated futuristic/sci-fi series for starters (I've not watched it) ... the bands previous release in 2018 was entitled 'Shiny And Oh So Bright Vol 1 - No Past, No Future, No Sun' and I think this double album (on one CD, but 20 tracks) is 'Shiny And Oh So Bright Vol 2 (and possibly 3 ...)' . Vol 1 was 8 tracks and a concise 31 minutes, this 'Cyr' is 20 tracks and 72 minutes ... It might have been better to have put out two separate 10 track albums with a bit of distance between them.

This doesn't sound like a typical Pumpkins album, in fact its probably closer to Billy's 2005 solo album 'The Future Embrace' - bringing back the original guitarist, but not letting him use guitars is a bit of a typical move for this awkward band. 

Getting into the Pumpkins wasn't that easy for me ... I think I had their second album for 5 years until I suddenly realized it was excellent - I can't think of any other albums that too that long to 'click'. I think that I could make a playlist to show that they are one of the best bands on the planet. I could also make a playlist that show they are one of the worst (ok, harsh, but a playlist of bad songs, put it that way). They can definitely go too heavy for me ... 

At this stage, I like to stick on the CD, and leave it as background music, and its very good for that, but its a bit samey and one-dimensional, there are not peaks-and-troughs as many pumpkins albums - I'm not sure if I played one track at random, if I would know even whereabouts its placed in the track-listing (a special mention to typical groan-some song titles... Wyttch, Tyger Tyger, Starrcraft  - these are NOT my spelling mistakes... )

But certainly I never feel the need to skip tracks ... I suspect this will grow on me over time






The never-ending track-listing : 




So yeah, maybe in a couple of years I will appreciate it even more, that tends to be the way with Smashing Pumpkins albums, but, also considering I don't have a lot of other ideas for Nov, this is the winner ... 

I like to mention the live experiences I've had with the artist, so I think in this case, its two shows, in 2000 and 2008. I also saw Billy Corgan solo in 2005, but sadly he cancelled a small acoustic show in 2018. 

Just December to go ... and I had a 'joker' ... two more posts ... the effort to write is almost as big as the effort to read this, I assume ... light at the end of the tunnel....

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