I listen to a lot of music- as a recreational listener, a songwriter, a musician, an engineer, whatever the case may be. ( i wear a lot of hats.) It's by far the most important artistic facet of my life.
As such, I'm almost constantly listening to music on my iphone when I'm out and about in toronto.
typically, i allow the shuffle in itunes to be my deejay, and carry about my merry way listening to whatever it offers up. However, on monday mornings during the long, dreary commute to work, i tend to try to fit in listening to a complete album. i'm afforded roughly fifty (though sometimes as many as seventy, stupid TTC) minutes in which to listen and digest a a complete musical experience. y'know, like they did in the 'olden days' of 33's and 45's (oh don't worry, we'll get there too.) I've decided it would be a fun excercise to note the experience of listening to these albums, and share my thoughts and reactions to them. There's no particular rhyme or reason to the albums being reviewed. some are old, some are new, musical styles will vary little or completely week to week, and the relevance of the works themselves may reside in days long since passed. that said, i think we'll have some fun talking music together. thus, without any further adieu, join me over the jump for this week's edition.
Monday Morning Commute Album #1 : Adore - The Smashing Pumpkins
Album: Adore
Artist: The Smashing Pumpkins
Release Date: June 2, 1998
Recorded: Dec. '97 - Mar. '98, various studios
Label: Virgin
Producer(s): Billy Corgan, Flood, Matt Wood
Performers: Billy Corgan, James Iha, D'Arcy Wretzky, Matt Walker, Bon Harris
Peak Chart Position: 2 (Australia, Canada), 3 (United States)
Certifications: Platinum (Canada), Gold (Australia, New Zealand, United States) Silver (United Kingdom)
Listening Device: iPhone 4, iPhone earbuds (eww, it's winter. my pannies don't fit over my toque. sue me.)
Track listing:
1. To Sheila
2. Ava Adore*
3. Perfect*
4. Daphne Descends
5. Once Upon a Time
6. Tear
7. Crestfallen*
8. Appels + Oranjes
9. Pug
10. The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete
11. Annie-Dog
12. Shame
13. Behold! The Nightmare
14. For Martha
15. Blank Page
16. 17
(* denotes single.)
This album stands as something approximating The End is the Beginning is The End (no,.no. that tune came before this album) for the "original" Smashing Pumpkins. Following the death of touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin and the departure/firing of Jimmy Chamberlin (the two overdosed on heroin together in new york, leading to Melvoin's death and Chamerlin's firing) the band was in a state of creative flux, with Corgan handling the brunt of the workload.
Attempting to move beyond the hard rock/alternative edge that dominated their first two albums, corgan looked to build upon the electronic inspirations dabbled with on mellon collie and the infinite sadness while crafting a "broader, wider" album equal parts folk-rock and electronica.
The band started work on the album in February of 1997 with Matt Walker replacing Chamberlin on the drums, and Brad Wood behind the console. Armed with as many as 30 songs written mostly during the period following the mellon collie and the infinite sadness tour. This proved to be an arduous and pain-staking task, and after spinning their wheels for some time, the band relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles, leaving both Brad Wood and Matt Walker behind.
(i like to imagine wood and walker looked like corey and trevor when they found out.)
[source: microcastlez.tumblr.com]
The band rented a house in Los Angeles, hoping the communal environment would help boost creativity and better band relations, but this was hardly the case. Writing and recording crawled along at a snail's pace with two thirds of the remaining Pumpkins' lineup seldom in the studio. Corgan plodded along, enlisting the help of bon harris (nitzer ebb, marilyn manson, depeche mode, many food network shows) for electronic/loop programming and drummers joey waronker (beck) and matt cameron (soundgarden, pearl jam) to continue to recording of the album.
Working with the reported field of over 30 songs from the onset, the group slowly but surely whittled the tracklist of adore down to 17 tracks. Some of the offerings featured an electronic, loop based sound (created primarily by an alesis hr-16 drum machine) highlighting an aura evidenced by soundtrack standouts "eye" and "the end is the beginning is the end", others a fair deal more laid back, featuring an acoustic almost an eerie folk feel, leading to the album having a much different feel than its predecessor.
Ultimately, Adore stands as something of a way-station for the Pumpkins, halfway between new and old incarnations, sitting somewhere between folk and electronica, hard and progressive rock. In its way, the track list provides an almost jarring feel, re-contextualizing each song after the last.
To Sheila is an interesting debut for the album, full of steel guitars and lullabye melodies, but seems as though it might feel a little more at home in an atom egoyan film than the lead off track to a rock album.
(mr egoyan is angry that david lynch keeps beating him to the pumpkins)
The second track and first single, "Ava Adore", seems much more palatable as an opening track, featuring some of the crunchy guitars and the trademark corgan vocals that pumpkins fans had come to appreciate at that point in time. From here, and into "Perfect", the album takes on a transient tone, at times expressing lonesomeness, longing, romanticism and mourning.
Instrumentation is all over the place, with many songs being chiefly piano driven (For Martha, Annie Dog) others featuring loads of acoustic guitar (To Sheila) and still more heavily featuring synths (Pug, Tear [originally written for the lost highway soundtrack] and appels + oranjes). This leads to a rather eclectic album, with many different construct of melody and counter melodies that aren't often achieved by straight-forward rock formations. The rhythm for most of the tracks is sparse, partially as a result of using drum machines over actual drummers, and potentially in an attempt to move away from the bombastic "full-energy" rhythms provided by Chamberlin.
The shift in tone from previous Pumpkins' efforts is palpable, and certainly a benefit for at least this release. In deliberately setting out "to broaden the band's sound and message", Corgan has created a mature and timeless sound for an incredibly hard fought record. The length of the writing/recording process seems to have lead to much more mature, deliberate album that stands as something of a watermark in Corgan and the Pumpkin's catalogue. All in all, I really like this album, and think it informs a good portion of the Pumpkins' later work.
Stand Out Tracks:
Ava Adore
-great first single for the record, though not entirely representative of its sound. wondeful guitar tones from corgans jcm800, particularly into the swell in the last chorus
Perfect
-almost a pick up from where "1979" left off. wonderful, melancholic melody.
Tear
-huge intro. nice to hear some live drums, and corgan's inclusion of string sections is, as per usual, spot on.
Pug
-great interplay between the synth loop and guitar riff. wonderful airy, open, spare choruses.
Trivia:
-Rick Rubin was brought in by the label/management to record and produce one track, "Let Me Give the World to You". It was later re-recorded and released on Machina II
-"Tear" was originally recorded for David Lynch's "Lost Highway" soundtrack, but the director chose "Eye" instead, freeing up "Tear" to appear on this album.
-After an extensive test of studio microphones, Corgan and engineers chose an sm57 (typically used on snares and guitar amps) to record vocals.
So, thus conclude's this week's Monday Morning Commute Album. Check back next week for... well, i haven't decided yet, but i bet it will be fun!
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