Well, we never saw that one coming. For all his idiosyncrasies, Billy Corgan always struck you as a man for looking forward rather than back. He also strikes you as a man whose career has gone into freefall over the past 10 years. As a solo artist, Corgan was playing venues like the Ambassador. Smashing Pumpkins are headlining Reading. You do the maths.
There is much talk of this as the first Pumpkins album in seven years, although in truth the band began to slide as early as 1996, when drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was fired for drug use and the group began to flounder musically. They lasted another four years before coming to an inglorious end, notable for critical maulings, departing members and sub-standard compilations.
Whatever Corgan’s reasons for revisiting his history, he’s taking no chances this time round. The trusted Chamberlin is back, the less favoured James Iha and D’Arcy Wreztky are not. Hired hands will make up the band on tour, in the studio this is essentially all Corgan’s own work.
On first listen, it’s pretty duff. All you can make out are a succession of bludgeoning riffs, Chamberlin’s furious drums and Corgan’s still whining vocals. While the brooding electronica of Adore has gone, so has the epic ambition of Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. What’s left is pretty standard alternative guitar rock, something that never really suited Corgan.
On a return listen, the record invites a slightly warmer reception. ‘That’s The Way (My Love Is)’ is quite sweet, the single ‘Tarantula’ pleasantly snarling, and there are other odd flashes of past inspiration. ‘United States’ is truly dreadful though, and at 10 minutes long clocks in as the album’s greatest folly, while the closing pairing of ‘For God And Country’ and ‘Pomp Circumstances’ are Corgan at his self-important worst.
So where does Zeitgeist sit in the Pumpkins canon? There’s nothing here that even comes close to matching the likes of ‘Disarm’, ‘1979’ et al, and even the sole Zwan album was streets ahead. The best you can offer is that it’s not a disaster – now do you want to tell Billy or should I?