When Billy Corgan deserted the music world two years ago, he buried the Smashing Pumpkins, the alt-rock juggernaut that dominated the early-mid 90s with ubiquitous hits like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," "1979" and "Today." The Pumpkin's dissemination was hardly elegant, however, as its popularity and fair-weather following began to wane in the late 90s. "Adore," its pastiche of acoustic and electronica, was poorly received because of its scattered departure from their staple guitar-driven, overdubbed sound. Their swan song "Machina: the Machines of God," overcompensated for much of their fans' disappointment. With a bloated conceptual story behind it and an even more bombastic production, that album floundered as well. An embittered and disillusioned Corgan abandoned the music industry, blaming the "Britneys" for the band's breakup and leaving many of his fans with a sour taste in their mouths.
Now, as all of his "Britneys" look like fallen American Idols, Corgan has returned with a new band and album. Corgan loaded his new outfit by none too surprisingly reteaming with Pumpkin's robust alum Jimmy Chamberlain on drums and maintaining his female-on-bass fixation through the addition of Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle).Corgan even managed to cajole two of indie rock's finest guitarists, Matt Sweeney (Chavez) and David Pajo (Slint), into handling guitar work despite the likeliness they would be virtually drowned by Corgan's obsessive overdubbing. This impressive conglomeration has produced "Mary, Star of the Sea" together, but make no mistake, with Corgan performing both vocal and songwriting duties on all 14 songs this is his band and his vision.
The album, which clocks in at just under 66 minutes, is solid nearly all the way through. Unlike Corgan's previous releases, which often dabbled in psychedelic musings and cynical declarations of love, the messages of spirituality and love on this album are relatively straight forward and the music stays loyal to his classic rock affections.
The album opens promisingly with "Lyric," on which Corgan moans in his effeminate voice, "A lyric / A time / A crusade / A line / One minute / A friend / A road without end." Even if it is contrived and trite, this positive and candid persona, which dominates the entire album, is refreshing to hear from someone who once uttered, "God is empty / just like me." Gone are the angst-ridden, whining lyrics that plagued Corgan's earlier songwriting. "Honestly," the first single off the new album, seems aimed at appeasing his fans with lyrics like "There's no place that I would be without you / It's too hard to discard the life we once knew / Honestly." In this manner, Corgan acknowledges the fans that have maintained loyalty to him up until this point, and signals a new beginning for his musical career. Other songs take on joyful resonance and almost poppish sound. The aptly titled "Yeah!" flaunts a memorable guitar melody throughout, and "Settle Down" returns to the later Pumpkins sound with its deliberate overproduction and heavy guitar use.
As effective as the guitars are in many of the album's songs, however, they are also the album's downfall. "Mary, Star of the Sea," like many current rock albums, suffers from too many overdubs and excessive production, which result in a muted and muddled sound on many of the songs. Midway through the album, many of the songs, like "Endless Summer," "Baby Let's Rock" and "Desire," are indistinguishable from each other, and if it wasn't for the occasional hook that Corgan is capable of catching the listener off guard by, the album would easily become tedious and dull.
Despite the eccentricity of the talent in the band, the album's songs are disappointingly standard Pumpkins-fare. Corgan ruled the Smashing Pumpkins like a dictator, writing nearly all of the material and sometimes playing all of the components of a song.
In Zwan not much seems to have changed. One could easily imagine that this is the latest Pumpkins release if it weren't for the album cover. Unlike Audioslave, which combined the talents of Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden without sounding like either of its forebears, Zwan displays no distinguishing characteristics that set it apart as being different from the Pumpkins. Pajo's and Sweeney's talent is wasted on this albums, when any session guitarist, or Corgan himself, could have easily played their parts. Only Paz, whose voice is the true find on this album, manages to distinguish herself. Her high pitched and softer vocals contrast sharply with Corgan's sharp and nasal moan, resulting in vocals that harmonize and complement each other's extremities.
Overall, "Mary, Star of the Sea" is a fine effort from Corgan and company, but it lacks the punch or the experimentation that would place it in the pantheon of Corgan's best work. The only experimental song on this album is the 14 minute "Jesus, I / Mary, Star of the Sea," and it is, quite appropriately, the highlight of the album. Efforts such as these ought to leave listeners clamoring for more, and if Zwan turns out to be more than just a rock experiment, then hopefully they will find more solid footing in the future.
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