The Smashing Pumpkins - Monuments To An Elegy (Album Review)
Friday, 12 December 2014
Written by Huw Baines
Augmented by prog bluster they might have been, but the songs that underpinned the Smashing Pumpkins’ rise to the alt-rock throne in the mid-'90s still stand mighty and proud 20 years later. Since reviving the band in 2005, though, Billy Corgan has pursued his own muse and perhaps delivered more bluster than winning tunes. Until now, that is.
‘Monuments To An Elegy’ is one of the more straightforward records that Corgan has put the Pumpkins name to, a blast of melody and riffs given its thematic wings as the latest segment of ‘Teargarden by Kaleidyscope’, an album cycle that will conclude with next year’s ‘Day For Night’.
It starts with a bang - namely Tiberius smashing together a wall of guitars with a new wave keyboard hook - and seldom deviates from that path. Perhaps, with ‘AEGEA’ knocking around and his Siddhartha jam to attend to, Corgan’s more expansive desires were sated elsewhere, because here he is happy to keep things moving forward at pace.
Being Beige leaps from quiet beginnings into a warm chorus, One and All packs a swampy, ‘Siamese Dream’ punch and Drum + Fife is the year’s leading flute-based blast of infectious pop-rock. You might struggle to pick below the surface of the record’s lyrics, but it rarely sits still long enough for that to detract from its more immediate qualities.
Its duds - the Faith No More-style stomper Anaise!, Run 2 Me’s featherweight synth-pop or the somewhat directionless Dorian - aren’t really all that horrible and are often followed by highlights, deftly papering over a few cracks.
When coupled with a recent everything-but-the-kitchen-sink reissue of the underrated ‘Adore’, ‘Monuments To An Elegy’ draws a line under a good few months for the Smashing Pumpkins. It might not be Billy Corgan’s finest work, but it shows that he’s got plenty left to say.
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