essential record of the day: Smashing Pumpkins--Siamese Dream (1993)

there's a big part of me that wants to hate this album.

Smashing Pumpkins signifies for me a lot of what was wrong with the alternative/indie scene in the 90s. Billy Corgan was a nobody when the Smashing Pumpkins released their debut record Gish in 1991. i remember getting into them because i saw the video for "Siva" on 120 Minutes and then meeting a guy who had the actual record, because it was hard to find stuff like that at Camelot Music when you are 16 and don't have a driver's license yet. and it was a cool record with some rockin' tracks, like "Rhinocerous." and what's more, it was my little secret

then came Nirvana. and all of sudden indie rock was soup de jour when it came to the new hot thing in music.

then came Virgin Records, their money and their distribution deals. Smashing Pumpkins "sold out" and released Siamese Dream. i let a friend in on my secret--"In six months time, when I come home for Christmas (it was my first year in college, and i was about to leave for Bowling Green) Smashing Pumpkins will be huge, and you will come to me and say 'you were right.'") in six months time, this friend and i had that conversation. but what i didn't realize at the time was that Billy Corgan had created one of the masterpieces of the alternative rock movement.

the interesting thing about Siamese Dream is that it follows a lot of the same conventions that shitty, hair metal bands had put out on the seemingly endless parade of craptastic records in the late 80s and early 90s. proto-metal guitar riffs and power ballads is all you have to say to describe most of the record. but unlike all of those horrible hair metal bands, Corgan somehow managed to write good proto-metal riffs (strong, but not overbearing) and interesting power ballads.

this record challenges a lot of what i believe about what is good about music. The Smashing Pumpkins made a lot of money with this record, and yet, it is probably one of the best records ever made. as is so often the case with these major label debuts, however, is that no one gave a flying fuck about Billy Corgan when he was making this record. he was just another rockstar wannabe trying to figure out how to make it. and did he ever make it. but i would credit that to the accessability of Siamese Dream as a whole. and just because a record is accessable doesn't mean it's not good. records like this one and The Bends by Radiohead are proof of that. it's just that they are so hard to come by that when they show up, you can't believe they exist, and you feel bad about agreeing with all of the average music going public because somehow that damages your cred.

but eventually you have to stop being a pompous ass and accept that there are some things that most people are going to like. so what if everyone loved the Beatles? they were really fucking good--good enough to have everyone figure it out, not just the music snobs.

and so i have to give credit where credit is due. Siamese Dream is one of the all time greats. it's the sort of record that makes you wish the band would never try to make another one, because you know there's no way they will ever top it. and perhaps had Smashing Pumpkins done that, i wouldn't feel so bad about liking this record so much today. Grade: A+