Wednesday, February 05, 2003
nope, I haven't heard mary star of the sea yet (how cool, though, that the album enters the billboard 200 at #3 next week), but I really dig the single "honestly." a couple of things strike me with zwan, most notably the fact that billy corgan, god bless him, finally seems to be happy. "honestly, I feel love" the chorus goes - but there's no bitter aftertaste of a punchline (like you'd find in, say, an older cure song). their website's full of bright colors and pop graphics. billy's letter to the fans features lots of exclamation points, for pete's sake. and you know, I'm glad. corgan seemed so tortured through much of the pumpkins' existence, even whilst making some truly shattering music. he's due. and "honestly"'s no pumpkins retread, either. sure, it's got that familiar chamberlain snare tattoo, and billy's voice hasn't exactly changed. but now there's an actual band involved - it's not just corgan tooling around in the studio - and their triple-guitar attack sounds buoyant, and fucking rocking like billy's been listening to some serious '70s jams. zwan's relationship to smashing pumpkins is like meeting a friend from high school or college 5 years later - and s/he looks much better.
I've never quite understood why much of the pumpkins' late-period work is so readily dismissed. "stand inside your love," from their final studio record, machina/the machines of god, is in my opinion their finest song ever. it's got their classic push-and-pull thing going on, like fighting against the undertow in the ocean. the waves of billy's guitar shift like sand dunes, slippery and hard to get your footing on them. and the lyrics! "who wouldn't be the one you love/who wouldn't stand inside your love?" that's such a powerful image, standing inside someone's love, as if being completely enveloped by them, giving yourself over totally. [admittedly, like with many of my all-time favorites, I have a hard time elucidating my love for "stand inside" in words.] gorgeous, and what a last kiss goodbye.
I've never quite understood why much of the pumpkins' late-period work is so readily dismissed. "stand inside your love," from their final studio record, machina/the machines of god, is in my opinion their finest song ever. it's got their classic push-and-pull thing going on, like fighting against the undertow in the ocean. the waves of billy's guitar shift like sand dunes, slippery and hard to get your footing on them. and the lyrics! "who wouldn't be the one you love/who wouldn't stand inside your love?" that's such a powerful image, standing inside someone's love, as if being completely enveloped by them, giving yourself over totally. [admittedly, like with many of my all-time favorites, I have a hard time elucidating my love for "stand inside" in words.] gorgeous, and what a last kiss goodbye.
# posted by Thomas : 2:26 PM
