Draven Reviews - The Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream

As an angst-ridden middle schooler, I flooded my ears with the music a lot of kids did during that period of their lives: ‘90s alternative and grunge. But over time I drifted away from most of that era’s bands, and I don’t bust out my red flannel nearly as much anymore. But, there were a few whose music transcended my “I’m angry for no reason” phase and have stayed close to my heart even now. One of those bands is The Smashing Pumpkins.

Led by nasally-voiced guitar virtuoso Billy Corgan, the band spent the ‘90s creating some of the best material the alternative genre had to offer up to that point or has had to offer since. Able to tap into both the raucous and beautifully melodic, and even to intertwine the two with ease, Smashing Pumpkins were a head (and then some) above most of their contemporaries . Their second album, Siamese Dream is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of that. So, to celebrate their upcoming reunion tour, let’s take a look at this timeless alternative masterpiece.

Released in 1993, Siamese Dream is an album that was very of its time, but in my opinion, its material doesn’t suffer for it as Pearl Jam’s or Mudhoney’s does. Corgan was never one to let plodding grunge riffs carry his records. For every rambunctious “Quiet,” there’s a beautifully constructed melodic masterpiece like “Today,” a song that’s somehow breathtakingly gorgeous even through its fuzzed out guitars and pounding drums. And I think it’s mostly because of Corgan’s abilities on the guitar that the Pumpkins were able to set themselves apart in such a huge way. Corgan, unlike many of his contemporaries on the instrument, such as Kurt Cobain, was always extremely technically proficient, though he doesn’t always flaunt it in his compositions. He can play a nice, tranquil melody (“Disarm”), or he can shred with the best of them (“Soma,” possibly Corgan’s greatest solo ever), depending on what he’s feeling at that point in time. It’s really in the guitar work that is ultimately at the center of every song, along with Corgan’s passionate, one-of-a-kind vocal performances, that let the Pumpkins climb to the top of the pile in an era full of a lot of bands who were, frankly, doing the same thing as one another. Take those factors and add in the tight rhythm section of D’arcy Wretzky and Jimmy Chamberlin, as well as a great rhythm guitarist in James Iha, and the Pumpkins were almost destined to succeed in a big way.

Siamese Dream is equal parts punchy and entrancing, aggressive and beautiful. But above all, it’s a truly visceral and downright enjoyable experience. This is the Pumpkins at their most fine-tuned, passionate, and youthful. While later releases were even more stylistically diverse and critically praised, like the gargantuan Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, I’ve always found myself the most attached to Siamese Dream, even from when I was very young and just discovering Smashing Pumpkins for the first time, just speaking from a sentimental standpoint. It’s an album that was very important to me in my development as a music listener and fan, with Corgan showing me what the monolithic peak of the ‘90s music scene sounded like. This album is a true classic, not just of the 1990s, but of all time.

Final Score: 9.5/10

Favorite Tracks: Pretty much the entire album (though my absolute favorite track is “Soma”)

Least Favorite Track: If I had to pick, “Rocket”

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