Smash these pumpkins
Head back to the nineties with the classic ‘Siamese Dream’
By Dominic Desmond, senior writer
Posted on October 26, 2006

Maybe it’s time to get into one of those kicks again — you find a album you haven’t listened to in a while by that band you used to love and listen to all of the time — and you won’t be able to stop listening. It might even become maladaptive. Siamese Dream, The Smashing Pumpkins’ sophomore record, is one of those albums, and if you don’t already have it, you’ll probably need it.

If you do own Siamese Dream, it’s high time you pull it out of your old record collection, dust it off, and give it a spin. It was (and arguably still is) one of the quintessential alternative rock records of the ’90s.

Siamese Dream is more stylized than the Pumpkins’ first record, Gish, but there is still a certain coarseness that shines in the ear-wrenching solos by Billy Corgan. “Cherub Rock” starts the opus with simplicity — the snare drum rolls and a clean, beefy guitar cuts in. After a few seconds, the whole band enters with hurricane-like ferocity, which doesn’t really stop throughout the album.

The best things about this album are the subtle and embryonic musical ideas the band sprinkles throughout the album. In “Today,” after almost every verse, a guitar squeals out a sassy little lick — accenting the last word of the verse. Still, deeper in the album, bells accent the musical lines within “Disarm.”

Siamese Dream is an album chock-full of solos. Some are wild, like the almost minute-long guitar riff on “Soma,” while some are much tamer, like the “Mayonaise” solo.

All in all, this record has a lot to offer. There are episodes of extreme tension. There are moments of acoustic relief. And, most importantly, it’s all rock ’n’ roll.

Though the band disbanded over six years ago, its music is still worth trying to find in your old and dusty records in your closet, under the seat of your car, or maybe still at the record store, waiting to be purchased by you.

The next time you think about picking up the album, think about what Corgan says in “Mayonaise” — “When I can, I will.”