Welcome everyone to the latest edition of Top Five Fridays. This week’s Top Five Friday revolves around a group that is getting the band back together (kinda). The original Smashing Pumpkins, with the exception of D’arcy Wretzky, are getting back together.
Full disclosure: The Smashing Pumpkins are probably the first true rock group that I wound up getting into as a teenager. I can remember the first time I heard Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and instantly falling in love with the group. While their later material isn’t as good, I still find myself finding good tracks in their stuff post-2000.
On with the countdown!
5. Doomsday Clock
First things first, remember when AOL was a thing? While most reviews panned the album Zeitgeist, I always liked the opening track to the group’s first album since 2000. This album had a different feel to it, but I liked that they didn’t bother getting too artsy with it and started cranking out tracks for this album.
The only negative I have about this album (and the song) is that it gets a little too political despite previous reservations from Corgan about mixing music and politics. I debated putting some of the other classics but landed on this because it was a good feeling re-listening to this.
4. Cherub Rock
Many hours were spent on Guitar Hero playing this one for me back in the community college days. While I enjoy Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness more, I can’t deny the fact that Siamese Dream was an absolute banger.
I’ll always be disappointed when I have my music on shuffle and I hear a drumroll in the intro and it’s not Cherub Rock. Fun fact: It took Billy Corgan only a half hour to write this song. Even after they recorded it, he wondered how much better it would’ve been if he spent four hours writing it. That’s the sign of someone who is passionate about the music.
3. My Love Is Winter
The Smashing Pumpkins 2012 album Oceania was a great overall album, but is held up by this track. I don’t know what it is, but song titles with the words love and winter just work for me. This is a prime example of that and has a much more refined sound than the great albums before it and has some new wave flair to it as well.
I don’t remember where I heard this for the first time, but I was immediately hooked on it.
2. 1979
There are about 20 songs that I used to have on my phone when I went to UL to make the trek from Mount Griffin to Burke-Hawthorne (or Wharton Hall). This was one of the songs that can make that walk a little less boring.
It also makes you feel nostalgic for a time where you didn’t have nearly as many worries about life. I’ll give it some bonus points for being used in Clerks 2, which is way better than I expected it to be when it came out.
1. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
This was the first song I heard from The Smashing Pumpkins. When you typically hear songs from the group, they have a typically mellow vibe (see: 1979), but this was just an assault on the ears with Billy Corgan yelling throughout the song. Add the crunching guitar to the mix, this was one of the songs that hit the ears just right as a teenager.
The line “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage” is still one of my favorite lyrics all these years later. When I listened back to some of the Pumpkins music, I expected this to lose the oomph it had from back when I was 13, but the line still works.
