NEW YORK — Indie pop icons The Magnetic Fields are putting the final touches on their latest album, with plans to write and record just another 100 or so more songs before releasing it, sources close to the band confirmed.
“As far as I’m concerned, we’ve only ever released two proper full-length albums, and then just a whole bunch of 14-song EPs,” explained band leader and primary songwriter Stephen Merritt. “My only regret with choosing to do a 50-track ‘memoir’ for each year I’ve been alive for our previous album was that I wasn’t at least 105 years old when I wrote it. So for this album, I figure we still need another 100 or so more songs before we can start the final mixdown. Half of the new tunes are going to be about my old cats, and then the rest about love, because if you ask me, that topic has not been covered nearly enough in pop music.”
A studio musician who requested to remain anonymous expressed frustration with Merritt’s writing style.
“I’m happy for the gig, but I really wish I was being paid hourly. Stephen is so exhaustingly prolific. Sometimes you’ll be chatting with him just about what you did that weekend but mentally he’s writing a song about deep sea diving suits,” explained the anonymous source. “Today I’ve spent the last seven hours learning to play glockenspiel for a song he wrote on the elevator ride up to the studio. How the hell are we supposed to be so twee when we’re all so exhausted?”
Similarly prolific indie rocker Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices discussed his often fractured relationship with Merritt.
“Yeah, me and Steve got into it back in the day. Sort of an indie pop arms race,” explained Pollard before momentarily taking a break to record and release a new solo record. “They’d release a new 74-song album, so we’d quickly pound out six LPs with increasingly unhinged song titles. They’d craft a majestic and sprawling rumination on relationships, and we’d get shitfaced. Which is maybe unrelated, but we did do that a lot. It got so bad that for most of 1997 I went everywhere holding a guitar and recording every sound I made using a hybrid sombrero/four track device.”
At press time, Pitchfork has placed its editorial team on temporary hiatus due to burnout from covering Merritt’s latest work.
I really wish we could start this list off strong, but numbers being what they are, here we are at 11. And right now you’re saying to yourself, ‘Holy shit, the Smashing Pumpkins have how many albums?’ It seems that every now and then Billy forgets where he put his guitar and decides to make an album with a children’s keyboard from Toys-R-Us. This is the first of these albums we will encounter, and most definitely the worst. It doesn’t matter what kind of Pumpkins fan you are. You hate this album.
This is the Smashing Pumpkins that is best listened to as a YouTube video in the background of your mindless Facebook scrolling. I’m just going to assume this was essentially a failed Zwan album that got repackaged by the record company as a Pumpkins disc just so they could clear out the unsold copies from a warehouse in South Jersey. It seemed like a good idea, but alas, it failed. The record company ended up burning the unsold copies which resulted in an ecological disaster of biblical proportions that up until now has mostly gone unnoticed among the piles of shit already scattered about the Philadelphia area.
Zeitgeist is one of those words I kind of know what it means. It’s a word that guys like Billy Corgan and Moby use to make the rest of us feel like morons…remember that time Moby used the word insouciant? Yeah, that kinda thing. But jokes on them, I have a dictionary. Zeitgeist: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era. I didn’t bother to look this up when the album came out. Then Billy used the word during a Joe Rogan interview and it seemed like Rogan knew what it meant. The idea of Joe Rogan understanding something better than I do terrified me, so I immediately looked the word up.
And then there was one. Making an album with only one original member is a time-honored tradition in rock and roll. Sometimes a band really only needs that one person, like Mike Ness and Social Distortion. Sometimes the band is more about a core group that is necessary for it to work…even Axl Rose eventually figured that out. The Pumpkins seem to be the latter of the two. Yes, Billy writes the songs, and he can do all the guitar, bass, and vocal tracks by himself…but no matter how hard he tries, no matter how many drum machines he buys, there is only one Jimmy Chamberlain…and that has to piss Billy off so much. Bravo Jimmy…Bravo.
I just recently entered “Cyr” into my Smashing Pumpkins discography and haven’t really made space for “Atum” yet…but hey, it’s the internet era, let’s give parts one and two a listen.
When Billy Corgan gets inspired, he writes a shit ton of songs. When Billy Corgan writes a shit ton of songs, he releases double albums. But really, there’s no shame in taking 30 songs and trimming it down to a lean 12 for the purpose of just getting to the fucking point. But alas, if I was asked to cut down the Machina I/II saga to a single disc, I honestly don’t know what I’d leave behind. Is every song necessary? Maybe. And that’s what is so irritating about it.
FINALLY, the band is mostly back together. James Iha has returned. Jimmy is still alive. Darcy is…well, that’s not important right now. And after all that time apart the band finally crafts a fine album of…8 songs? I’m just going to fill in the story behind this one: Jimmy and James were so happy to be making music with Billy again that they tolerated his crap long enough to make 31 minutes of music. I mean, I know I said I wanted them to start trimming the fat, but Jesus, leave a little flavor on the bone.
For those of you familiar with the Pumpkins, this is the album you’re supposed to say is their best. I know, you really hated it when it came out because ‘hey, where’s Jimmy?’ Ultimately this album is what happens when a rockstar gets bored. Billy got all the big guitar rat-in-a-cage stuff out of his system and now he’s ready to lay down some roots, buy a Casio keyboard, and ruin his legacy for millions of fans.
“Gish” is not the reason you like the Smashing Pumpkins. You didn’t even know “Gish” was a thing until 1994. You bought this album because the local radio station was playing a song called “Drown” and you had to have it. You already owned “Siamese Dream,” and the record store only had one other Pumpkins album…”Gish.” You got the album home, put it in your boombox…and waited…and waited. An hour later, in a moment of pure rage, you looked at the track list only to find that “Drown” isn’t on this album you idiot. It’s actually on the “Singles” soundtrack, a movie you’ve never even seen, even though the movie poster was hanging on your dorm room wall.
Double albums are the musical equivalent of a threesome. They’re usually the brainchild of the one person who’s least equipped to handle this sort of thing. I’m sure it started one evening with a semi-sober Corgan wearing a turtleneck and saying “You know what would be really hot…” The band went on to make 28 tracks of pure excess scattered across two CDs. It showcased the good, the bad, and yes, the ugly of everyone involved. And of course, the end result of all good double albums, much like a threesome, was a messy breakup and a mattress you will never get that smell out of. But, was it worth it? Probably. The album is heavy and soft, fast and slow, introspective and frivolous, it’s everything this band was capable of…good, bad, and ugly.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. If you really want to seem like an intellectual Pumpkins fan, just claim that “Machina” is really their best album. Cite its deeper lyrics, its binding concept, its varying texture, and that sweet ass riff at the beginning of “The Everlasting Gaze.” True Pumpkins fans will give you a simple nod to express their mutual understanding. Lesser Pumpkins fans will come at you like a cornered possum…either way, you will be both respected and feared.
Ok, this compilation of outtakes and b-sides must have ‘Drown’ on it, right? Wrong. This collection of stuff not good enough to be on “Gish” and “Siamese Dream” has really only one song you actually want: a cover of “Landslide.” I’m not exactly sure, but it seems to me that Billy sang this song even higher than Stevie Nicks did. This is either a testament to Billy’s vocal range, or a testament to how much cocaine Nicks did in the ’70s which resulted in her husky yet feathery voice.
This is why you’re here right? You wanted to verify that “Siamese Dream” is #1. You wanted to make sure it wasn’t rated below “Adore” or god forbid “Machina II” just to get clicks. As you scrolled through this list, you actually became visibly stressed that I might play the wildcard and put this album at #2…or maybe even #3. Once you hit Adore at #4, you actually started to sweat. I can see it….you’re still not sure what my intention is right now. I’m in your head…at any moment, I could drop a compilation or a live album. I fucking own you right now.
The story was exposed as a hoax when truthers proved such a radical color scheme was impossible in the vacuum of space.
“You’re telling me I learned how to wear sunglasses for nothing?!”
Cobain’s body was found in a house in Seattle home Friday morning, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot blast to the head. He was 27.
Some artists use words instead of brushes.
“Just keep your heads down and play that wacky jazz, or, whatever.”
And we still like him more than Dave Holmes.
What happens when 25% of a major conglomerate’s staff gets laid off and agrees to have their lives filmed?
They add up over time!
He’s just like us, the young people.
All music fans really need to know is that Sylvester Stallone is loyal but dangerous.
It’s time to take this whole YouTube thing down a peg.
From the legend of Orpheus to “Fat Lip,” it’s been one hell of a run, music.
Until such a time that the Loderforce is recharged and he may rule again.
Okay he pretty much looks the same. Older though! And still more appealing than Dave Holmes.
There can be only one.
If you cared enough to click on this and have read this far you are at least 35.
I wanted to wait until after “Darkadelic” came out before writing this review so I could include it in this ranking. But then I listened to it last Friday and I was like… “Whoa.” Bottom line, it’s just too soon to make a definitive placement for it – but go check it out anyways.
Is that a rhetorical question? Because not me. I have seen through the bullshit. If you wanna take this album’s title as a sincere query then I would guess it was whoever produced this bland, monotonous slog, who was likely afraid that any hint of excitement might alert an unseen secret police to their presence. Who was this mystery producer? What was their imagined crime? Suppose we’ll never know, ‘cause there’s no way I’m going to listen to this drag again looking for clues.
The Damned kinda have a habit of reinventing their sound about once every three years. In one way it’s very impressive to have that kind of musical elasticity – in another way, you end up with “Anything” and are forced to listen to low-rent ABBA for forty minutes. I suppose you could make an argument for it if that’s your thing, but if you’re mostly a fan of Triple D era Damned then it’s safe to give this one a miss.
Personally, I enjoy this record. It is fun and in a way reminds me of the Groovie Ghoulies if they were Britpop. But held up to a lot of other Damned albums it just can’t hold its own with that style. So, yeah, I’m not sure what that leaves “Grave Disorder” as. “Unfortunately enjoyable,” maybe?
I genuinely forgot that this record exists. So I listened to it again before writing this and my consensus is: pretty good. Yeah, dude. A lot of the songs still preserve that original lineup edge (despite being like nineteen Damned lineups down the road) and the songs don’t feel as samey as their more pop-oriented albums. Still, the fact that I didn’t even remember it until bringing up Wikipedia to check release dates means I can’t really go higher than here in the ranking. Sorry, that’s my bad.
Anyone else get the feeling like Dave Vanian might really be a Dracula? I mean, that would be fucking cool if he was, but, like that’s true of a lot of people. I’m saying he’s the guy who might legit just be a goddamn vampire. Also, don’t ever spill holy water on this album or it will burst into flames and a part of your soul is forever lost. Pretty cool how they worked that into the production.
“Music For Pleasure” was released roughly nine months after the band’s previous album and oh boy does it show. We’ll just let this one be an example of “strike while the iron is hot” not always being the best career advice. That being said, there’s nothing sonically wrong when compared with triple D – this is just more of the same, albeit feeling a bit less inspired. But particularly when put up against “Black Album” or “MGE,” this one just doesn’t have the stuff.
Here we have the later-era dark horse inclusion high in the list. “Evil Spirits” feels like it came out of nowhere, much in a way a spooky ghost will suddenly appear before whispering something to you like “fear the alleycat” before disappearing into a nearby aviary. I’ll call this a well-deserved comeback for the band after a few so-so offerings, and if you gave up on the Damned years ago, this album certainly demands your appreciation.
I wanted to make this entry just a picture of Dave Vanian singing while wearing the pirate shirt from “Seinfeld” with his hair done up exactly like Bride of Frankenstein but I was told “no, James, you actually have to write something.” So anyways there it is – now stop reading and go look up that picture immediately.
“The Black Album” rests on that perfect liaison between the sneering punk rock of the early Damned and the ethereal goth rock the band later consumed like the heart of an undead concubine. And they did it phenomenally. Most bands are lucky if they ever even get one truly great album out of a lifetime of struggle and dedication in the fickle and thoughtless music industry. The Damned have three, and this is the third.
This is the second. Also, it’s the only truly great record that had the classic lineup. And if you really still don’t see what set the Damned apart from other early UK punk bands, then compare this album’s cover to The Clash and see how it’s like fucking night and day. Triple D is punk without ego. It’s the true embrace of the weird and the rebellious, and above all, it’s just fucking fun. As any true Damned fan knows this was the first full-length punk record from any UK punk band and the cover art is a goddamn pie fight. Suck on that with all your seriousness and political shit, Joe Strummer.
And here’s the first. This is everything that was great about the early Damned except that, without Brian James serving as musical director, everyone finally got to do their own thing. Captain got to play guitar, Dave went full nosferatu, and Rat Scabies successfully lobbied to change his name to Hamster Healthy-Skin. Truly it was a golden age of the Damned.