So.
Day two of the Mellon Collie breakdown. I'm surprised at my own recollections of this album versus the experience I've had after listening to the second half. As you could tell from my look at Dawn To Dusk, I loved the first half of this album. I really looked forward to digging into Twilight To Starlight and seeing what I had forgotten about for years. It turns out not only was my grand, unifying theory flawed in its overarching assumption but also that there was a reason I hadn't really revisited this disc in a while.
I just don't get it.
Maybe that's too broad of a generalization, to sweeping of a hand. In fact listening to the first half of Twilight To Starlight I was pretty engaged - there's a fair bit of solid material. It just seems to sag under the weight of the execution towards the back nine. Too much of a good thing? Maybe. But conversely I loved (and still do) the outtakes, the sprawling and massive box-set The Aeroplane Flies High. At some point in the future I'll dig into those as well, but it's funny to think the album itself feels like weak-sauce to me now and the b-sides are more interesting. I don't really know what to make of it. But I digress.
I've read that in switching producers (from Butch Vig to Flood and Alan Moulder) there was a re-focused effort to capture the sound and vitality of the Pumpkins' live shows. While the softer stuff may not equate so well, the harder material on this half of the album definitely make that effort clear. The first track, the meandering and venomous 'Where Boys Fear To Tread' could almost be a jam captured in the studio. Despite this natural, organic rock track there are fun little moments that were trivia-worthy at the time of its release - at key points in the track the percussion is augmented by the sound of explosions from the classic shooter Doom. You'll hear it if you listen closely.
'Bodies' is the Pumpkins at some of their best, a full on assault with buzzsaw guitars, Jimmy Chamberlains pounding drums and Corgan snarling "Love is suicide". It's a great song but has an abrupt transition into the peaceful, contemplative 'Thirty-Three', which is a beautiful and wistful song. Another natural single, 'Thirty-Three' has a bit of an old fashioned feel, a style Corgan seemed to dabble in around the time of making these tracks. 'In The Arms Of Sleep' is a dusty, lonely number that conveys the early aging of a performer and the draining affect the rockstar lifestyle can have. The guitars here sound so corroded and rusted, which not only give a great, creaky feel to the song but show Corgan and Flood's sense of keeping a track sparse. '1979' stands not only as a refreshing moment of pop cheeriness but also as a sign of what the band was really capable of - this massively popular song just never gets old for me, and the trick here might be that Corgan wrote the song as a love-letter to never growing up. It seems to be widely known as a song about youthful mischief and that no doubt owes a great deal to the accompanying video. It's a knock out.
Shame, then, that the jarring transitions continue. As '1979' drives off into the distance, waving goodbye, out of left-field comes a squeal of feedback and the band launches into 'Tales Of A Scorched Earth'. This is far and away the most aggressive track on the entire album. In it we hear Corgan screaming horrible things and how "I lie just to be real and I'd die just to feel". It's the Pumpkins at their most aggressive and if you can take the assault it's pretty great, just intense. Feels like their live show. As 'Scorched Earth' crashes to a close we hear a broken, tinkling piano and guitar melodies fade in, heralding the arrival of 'Thru The Eyes Of Ruby', a fantastic and grand song about the foibles of young love and youthful rebellion. It's a bit cheesy and cliched but it's so endearing and sincere that it sells itself on the love Corgan poured into it. Soaring guitars give way to Corgan singing earnestly "And with this ring I wed thee true". It's lovely, especially the small coda tagged onto the end. Almost hidden after 'Ruby' is the short and sweet 'Stumbeline', a song seemingly about Corgan realizing his own confusion and muddled ambitions as a performer.
It's at this point I had realized my overarching interpretation of the frustrated musician only holds up conceptually and not literally - the second half of the album isn't a linear progression but more of a back and forth "I hate everything/I'm in love with the world" dynamic. I think it would offer something of an explanation of the jarring transitions and at times harsh segue-ways between songs, like how 'X.Y.U.' starts so abruptly.
It's here that Twilight To Starlight starts to drag for me. This track feels like another rambling studio jam. Corgan's vocals are clearly a live take, very uneven but full of vigor and passion, but the song is too unpleasant to have much that would redeem it and it drags on too long. 'We Only Come Out At Night' is peculiar almost for peculiar's sake, the rote "I'm a weirdo" weirdo's song, although it does have interesting instrumentation and progressions. 'Beautiful' is a subdued, slightly sappy love song that redeems itself about halfway through, as the key changes and a great little riff shines through. 'Lily' is just bizarre - an old-timey, almost jokey song about watching your love through a window. I just don't get it, frankly. 'By Starlight' is a sweet love song but it feels to sleepy for me, but then again maybe that's the point. It's a dreamy number but there's something about it that just won't settle in for me...maybe it's that shimmering guitar tone. 'Farewell And Goodnight' is just a cute lullaby by the whole band, a sweet little end to the album with a reprise of the piano from 'Mellon Collie' at the tail end. It's a bit of an uneventful end to a huge and intricately produced album, really.
So what have I learned here? Interestingly, I still think the album holds up really well, it's just a bit of a niche thing if you're not now or ever a fan of the Pumpkins. I was surprised to hear how frankly conventional it sounds now, when it seemed to strange and unique fifteen years ago, but then again I should read what I'm typing here. The theme of Corgan being jaded and frustrated, writing about being a rock star still seems to tie it all together but it starts to unravel as the album winds down. Maybe that's part of the design. It was certainly a high water mark for the band. I'm really glad I went back and listened to it straight through a couple times over the last week, though. I still really like it. Dear god, do I have to do The Aeroplane box-set next?
Day two of the Mellon Collie breakdown. I'm surprised at my own recollections of this album versus the experience I've had after listening to the second half. As you could tell from my look at Dawn To Dusk, I loved the first half of this album. I really looked forward to digging into Twilight To Starlight and seeing what I had forgotten about for years. It turns out not only was my grand, unifying theory flawed in its overarching assumption but also that there was a reason I hadn't really revisited this disc in a while.
I just don't get it.
Maybe that's too broad of a generalization, to sweeping of a hand. In fact listening to the first half of Twilight To Starlight I was pretty engaged - there's a fair bit of solid material. It just seems to sag under the weight of the execution towards the back nine. Too much of a good thing? Maybe. But conversely I loved (and still do) the outtakes, the sprawling and massive box-set The Aeroplane Flies High. At some point in the future I'll dig into those as well, but it's funny to think the album itself feels like weak-sauce to me now and the b-sides are more interesting. I don't really know what to make of it. But I digress.
'Bodies' is the Pumpkins at some of their best, a full on assault with buzzsaw guitars, Jimmy Chamberlains pounding drums and Corgan snarling "Love is suicide". It's a great song but has an abrupt transition into the peaceful, contemplative 'Thirty-Three', which is a beautiful and wistful song. Another natural single, 'Thirty-Three' has a bit of an old fashioned feel, a style Corgan seemed to dabble in around the time of making these tracks. 'In The Arms Of Sleep' is a dusty, lonely number that conveys the early aging of a performer and the draining affect the rockstar lifestyle can have. The guitars here sound so corroded and rusted, which not only give a great, creaky feel to the song but show Corgan and Flood's sense of keeping a track sparse. '1979' stands not only as a refreshing moment of pop cheeriness but also as a sign of what the band was really capable of - this massively popular song just never gets old for me, and the trick here might be that Corgan wrote the song as a love-letter to never growing up. It seems to be widely known as a song about youthful mischief and that no doubt owes a great deal to the accompanying video. It's a knock out.
It's at this point I had realized my overarching interpretation of the frustrated musician only holds up conceptually and not literally - the second half of the album isn't a linear progression but more of a back and forth "I hate everything/I'm in love with the world" dynamic. I think it would offer something of an explanation of the jarring transitions and at times harsh segue-ways between songs, like how 'X.Y.U.' starts so abruptly.
So what have I learned here? Interestingly, I still think the album holds up really well, it's just a bit of a niche thing if you're not now or ever a fan of the Pumpkins. I was surprised to hear how frankly conventional it sounds now, when it seemed to strange and unique fifteen years ago, but then again I should read what I'm typing here. The theme of Corgan being jaded and frustrated, writing about being a rock star still seems to tie it all together but it starts to unravel as the album winds down. Maybe that's part of the design. It was certainly a high water mark for the band. I'm really glad I went back and listened to it straight through a couple times over the last week, though. I still really like it. Dear god, do I have to do The Aeroplane box-set next?
