The Smashing Pumpkins in tier list
I could see them growing on me or not, I’m really not sure yet, we’ll have to see. They’re not hugely interesting to me: pretty repetitive, albums are too long, I’m not super into rock for rock’s sake. But there were times I was listening where I was like, okay, I think I’m getting a feel for his vibe, I can get behind this. First albums were mostly just boring for me, felt like rock for rock’s sake, felt very samey, but then I feel like they got more willing to try stuff as they went and that helped them and my engagement with them. So yeah I’m not sure, guess we’ll see
RELISTEN1: I noted my first time around something that’s worth saying again: the albums here are too long, so much too long. There are a couple normal length ones but most are at least an hour, at least. That’s exhausting to listen to, especially when it’s all musically repetitive rock I don’t care about the lyrics of. That’s an issue, but it wasn’t really what bothered me into doing a full relisten. Frankly, the biggest reason I really felt I needed a relisten here was because as I listened to Smashing Pumpkins songs pop up in my everyday listening I became decreasingly tolerant of Billy Corgan’s voice.
I just don’t like it, it grates on me. When I listened through the first time around, I definitely noticed it but I didn’t want to judge too quickly. The more I listened to it in a row the less it bothered me. But when I get just one song at a time it’s pretty jarring. Machina/The Machines of God and Oceania are a turn for the better musically, I think. Significantly more interesting to me. I still don’t know that I’m necessarily a fan, but I could see myself growing to like these later albums in a way I really can’t for the older stuff. Stuff before then does still feel to me too repetitive and unengaging. Except, these more recent 2nd phase albums where I like the music a little better I am way more conscious of his voice and how I do not like it. It is distracting for me. I like the music better, not a ton, but I think I could find myself liking it, find it growing on me, if not for that I just don’t like his voice. The more I like the music, the less it gets in the way and the easier it is for me to realize how distracting his voice is for me.
I wouldn’t say hope is lost, though. I’ll keep a chunk of the songs I liked more in my playlist and we’ll see if I grow to like Corgan’s voice more or less. I know that when I first listened to Death Cab for Cutie I really didn’t like Ben Gibbard’s voice (that’s not strictly true- for the first little while, I actively disliked it in lots of songs). Since then I’ve grown to actually like it quite a bit. So while that kind of change (of preference of an individual’s particular voice quality) isn’t unprecedented, the precedent is limited, and took a couple years to really take effect. So yeah, I’m gonna drop ‘em down to a D because I don’t enjoy listening to them enough to warrant the B on account of the voice, and I don’t actually care for the music itself enough to warrant the grace of the C
tunafruitsandwitch 