Smashing Pumpkins "Zeitgeist" - First Impressions

As I've been waiting to do for months and months now, I went out and bought the Smashing Pumpkins' latest album after their previous breakup, Zeitgeist. I also managed to buy a used copy of The Chieftains' Santiago. I saw it last weekend, and I didn't think it would still be there. I was so glad that it was!

But that's a story for another time. What I want to do now is give my first impressions of Zeitgeist after hearing it once. It is a very guitar-and-drum heavy album. It has the intensity of the most intense tracks from Gish, Siamese Dream and Adore with a smattering of beautiful songs. Fans used to the beautiful side of the Pumpkins probably won't like this album, but I think it's good for what it is.

As usual, the Pumpkins are probably way ahead of the curve. This album does have that classic Smashing Pumpkins sound, but it has so much more. The guitars are spectacular, and indeed Billy uses many different guitar styles throughout. Some of the songs sound like mid-80s stadium hair metal. Some fans have complained about the new vocal mixing, but I don't think it's really all that bad (except for the chorus of "Starz," which is as bad as everyone said it is).

Zeitgeist is a very unbalanced album, and so it may not be my favorite of theirs, but I think it still has value in the Smashing Pumpkins' catalog of work. Come to think of it, Adore wasn't well balanced either - it had an album's worth of slow, acoustic, piano-heavy ballads. Zeitgeist seems to be the rock equivalent of such an album.

Is it perfect? No. Is it as good as the Pumpkins' classic albums? No, not yet, but I didn't expect that anyhow. It is a new Pumpkins album and it does rock, and that's all I really wanted. So I think this is a winner and a keeper!

Now I just need to listen some more and really form an opinion.