MACHINA/The Machines of God

Performer: The Smashing Pumpkins
Engineer: Howard Willing; Bjorn Thorsrud
Producer: Flood; Billy Corgan
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Smashing Pumpkins: Billy Corgan (vocals, guitar); James Iha (guitar); Melissa Auf Der Maur (bass); Jimmy Chamberlain (drums). Additional personnel: Mike Garson (piano). MACHINA: THE MACHINES OF GOD was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. On Smashing Pumpkins' fifth studio album, prodigal drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was brought back into the fold as bassist D'Arcy left and was replaced by Hole's Melissa Auf der Maur. Just as the band underwent personnel changes, so did its music. Head Pumpkin Billy Corgan retreated from the scaled-down ambiance of ADORE, instead choosing to reunite with MELLON COLLIE co-producer Flood in a move that merged the band's early '90s crunch with the sterile sheen of late-'90s industrial rock. Topically, Corgan incorporates plenty of religious and perils-of-fame imagery. He declares himself as a rock messiah within the swirling miasma of "Heavy Metal Machine" and seeks to find redemption in an unrequited relationship on the keening dirge "Crying Tree of Mercury." Although songs such as "The Everlasting Gaze" and "The Imploding Voice" grind along with NIN-like efficiency, Corgan still provides plenty of pleasantly melodic moments. "Try, Try, Try," "The Sacred and Profane," and "Wound" find the nasally frontman putting together ethereal sounding pop songs propelled by gentle rhythms and dreamy electronic nuances.

Rolling Stone (3/16/00, pp.71-2) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...The songs go back to the basics of would-be hit singles: riffs, hooks, bridges, choruses....Guitars rule...[and Jimmy] Chamberlain's drums stand shoulder to shoulder with the guitars....the music surges forward once again..." Spin (3/00, pp.145-6) - 7 out of 10 - "...right away on MACHINA, [the group] is rocking again...hurtling forward within that patented dreamy gauze....it's quite a tripartite structure: Commerce, Craft, and Coloring. A road that forks 3 ways..." Q (4/00, pp.84-5) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Billy Corgan is miserable as sin and functioning perfectly well....a wonderful rock album....a near perfect synthesis of MELLON COLLIE's rock power and ADORE's finesse..." Alternative Press (3/00, p.94) - 3 out of 5 - "...the audio-verite diary of the past few years....a much more fully realized version of ADORE....There's plenty of noise-soak to go around during the wilder moments, and enough soft lyrical sentiment for high-school couples..." CMJ (2/28/00, p.3) - "...a beacon in a dark night for music fans disheartened by the inevitable re-dumbing-down of pop music....a lethal missive from a band that continues to remain true to itself..." Melody Maker (3/7/00, p.46) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Now that the Pumpkins have sieved out all the repellent grunge effluent from their songs, it suits the music perfectly....[They] are at their best undercutting their rock with beautiful poignancy....Let it consume you." Mojo (Publisher) (3/00, p.98) - "...packed with Corgan's familiar ruminations, and further cements the band's position as post-grunge 'ubermeisters'....[MACHINA] settles onto an essentially nu-metal tack, while making some entertaining detours along the way..." NME (Magazine) (2/26/00, p.36) - 6 out of 10 - "...a bloody, self-flagellating atonement for Corgan's prior assertion that rock was dead....grand, ambitious [and] immense..."

Before The Smashing Pumpkins, alternative rock had yet to touch upon the grandiose arena rock of the 1970s. Leader/singer/guitarist/songwriter Billy Corgan composed songs that were somehow part Boston, Cure, Queen, and Jane's Addiction. The Pumpkins were rewarded by becoming one of the biggest rock bands of the '90s. Corgan broke up the band at the beginning of the new century, yet after trying his hand as the leader of the band Zwan and as a solo artist, he reformed Smashing Pumpkins with a new line-up. The band has been touring and recording since 2005.

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