Smashing Pumpkins - CYR






Roughly a week ago, the Smashing Pumpkins released their latest album, the double-album Cyr. The band has once again recovered from instability in their lineup, bringing back the "core" of vocalist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin that played on their high-water mark albums of the 1990s, but also on 2007's critically panned but still completely serviceable release, Zeitgeist. 


Interestingly, this album marked an abrupt pivot into synth-pop territory, something you probably couldn't anticipate even from their more recent material, particularly its direct precursor, 2018's Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1, which stayed true to their guitar-driven sound. Also in sharp contrast are the two records' lengths -- Shiny and Oh So Bright runs for just over 30 minutes, while Cyr runs for 72. Though the more subdued instrumentation by itself isn't terrible, it doesn't work very well with Corgan's voice (incidentally, an opinion I also hold about their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide"). 


In an attempt to emulate the way '80s new wave pioneers like Joy Division or Siouxsie and the Banshees embraced new technology, many of the tracks ultimately sound more like discount tracks from the Killers than anything the Pumpkins did in the past. These include the pairs of singles they've pumped out over the past few months, like "Cyr"/"The Colour of Love" and "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict"/"Wrath." The album's heaviest guitar work appears on "Wyttch," part of their fourth pair of singles, making it clear that Corgan really wanted listeners to focus on the record's myriad of synth-driven songs.


Ultimately, the endeavor in turning the band towards a more "contemporary" style is just something that fell flat this time around -- even if they went with a regular album's length, there just isn't anything on it that isn't already being done better by much fresher faces. But as this album is part of an ongoing series, maybe in a couple years we'll see another tonal shift from Corgan et al., and maybe even a mix of these two disparate styles.

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InKmp #UnchangedMelodies

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