The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Zeitgeist”

After a nearly decade-long absence from the musical scene, Billy Cogran and his five-piece rock group, The Smashing Pumpkins, return with their brand new album, aptly titled Zeitgeist (pronounced ‘zeet-jiste’).

While I myself have never really been a fan of this sort of angsty dream psychedelic alternative hard rock combination (I think the Pumpkins would have better luck with a more Funk pop alternative hardcore sound), Zeitgeist is certainly an interesting and ultimately successful album, which is sure to please hardcore fans of The Smashing Pumpkins and James Iha alike.

Along with Cogran’s return is famed bassist, Flea, and drummer Thommy Chamberlin. The trio makes up the original lineup of the Pumpkins, although James Iha is sorely missing.

The opening song, “Doomsday Cock”, is an experimental grunge piece that harkens back to the old days of The Pumpkins, primarily their first album “Loveless.” It’s an interesting choice to open the album, seeing as the song is split into two tracks, the second being track number two, “Se7en Shades of Black.” I don’t know for the life of me why Cogran decided to split one song into two tracks, but I’m assuming both halves of the song are about the Brad Pitt film Se7en, what with that big bladey cock thing and all.

The third track on the album, “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” seems to be titled after their second album, “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.” It’s an okay song I guess, but quite a tonal shift from the first song(s?). I don’t really understand why William Cogran’s voice is so fucking loud though. Go figure.

“(My Love Is) That Way” covers the fourth track, mostly a bizarre instrumental featuring what sounds like Billy Cogran dying, or possibly drinking a lot of wine. I kind of skipped this track anyway so it don’t matter.

The fifth and final (of the first five) track would be the album’s first single, “Tarantula,” a loving ode to Spider-Man and his tight, sexy suit. While the song is good for the most part, it’s pretty obvious that Cogran copied the main riff from Radiohead’s “Shrinking Universe” but I can forgive him for that, because Radiohead is so fucking awesome.

So anyway, I kind of stopped listening to the rest of the songs because House was on, and that’s a really funny show. So I’m going to give this album a patented…

Four out of Six Strings