Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Listen to an audio version of this review by Greg
This review might hurt a bit; not necessarily for you old school Pumpkins fans but for those of you who have enjoyed the Smashing Pumpkins’ latest releases. As a music fan, and a fan especially of the 80s, early 90s alternative music scene, I am passionate about certain genres and styles.
In this review, I am going to dive deep into the Smashing Pumpkins 2nd studio album, 1993’s, Siamese Dream, but I am also going to shed light (or at least force you to think about this) on the topic of creativity. Essentially, at what point should we “allow” our favorite artists to continue driving their own creative juices by writing new music? At what point do we say we are comfortable with their preference to leave their old music behind? Are they out there writing, recording and touring just for us fans? Are they out there just for them? Are we fans just along for the ride? I think this is a fascinating topic and I want to explore it more.
Siamese Dream was released by Smashing Pumpkins (no I’m not saying “dropped”) on July 27th, 1993. It was the summer before my junior year of high school. I just secured my driver’s license and of course had to have a quality sound system in my 1987 VW Jetta that I bought used. Smashing Pumpkins’ previous album, their debut, Gish was my favorite. You can find/read my review of that album here. Coming off that glorious album, the band had a lot to live up to. As a fan of the band from 1991 – 1993, I felt like I was a part of a small, secret club. Once Siamese Dream was released, that changed. The album skyrocketed to number 10 on the Billboard Top 200 one week after its release. With the song, Cherub Rock leading the charge as the first single, things would get even bigger when they released Today in September of that same year.
Produced by Butch Vig, in Madison, WI, Gish gave much of the alternative underground fans a taste of what the Pumpkins were capable of. Billy Corgan’s sappy songwriting, his voice that sounded like it’s hooked up to a distortion box sometimes, and the heavy but yet very, very sweet and melodic guitar riffs, gave the Smashing Pumpkins something different. They were a little different from Alice in Chains. They were a little different from Soundgarden. They were certainly a lot different from Nirvana and they were less bluesy than Pearl Jam. They were lumped in with this genre, which the band admits and gladly accepts, but there was something different about Siamese Dream from these other bands releases.
Butch Vig admitted he felt a lot of pressure by the record company to create a successful follow up album for the Pumpkins. He had recently come off producing one of the biggest records in the world, Nirvana’s Nevermind. So Butch chose Triclops Studios in Atlanta, GA to avoid distractions that typically exist in places like Los Angeles and New York. Butch liked that Triclops had a vintage Neve Console there. When I found this out, everything made perfect sense to me. Have you ever seen the documentary, Sound City? Well, it’s a must see. It’s about an old, dilapidated studio in the Valley near Hollywood, CA that was famous for recording some of the greatest rock albums of ALL time. And the Neve Console, an old school, traditional tape-based recording sound board was used for virtually every recording there. The Neve Console cannot be mistaken for it’s pure, electric sound. Albums like Nirvana’s Nevermind, Tool’s Undertow, Tom Petty’s Wildflowers, Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush, Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album with songs like Over My Head, Rhiannon, Say You Love Me,…the list goes on, were all recorded there. These albums were recorded with a traditional, tape based (not computer software) Neve Console.
Neve Electronics was a manufacturer of music recording and broadcast mixing consoles and hardware. It was founded in 1961 by Rupert Neve, the man credited with creating the modern mixing console.
The sound on these albums, and specifically on Siamese Dream is difficult for me to articulate. It is one of those things you just must experience. But gun to my head, if I must explain, I suppose what comes to mind first is, “melodic distortion”.
Now I always like to point to the non-singles. In addition to MTV and radio friendly tracks such as Cherub Rock, Today, and Disarm, this album is buried in brilliant deep tracks.
Take for instance, with Hummer, the melodic distortion hits you in the forehead as it backs away to Billy’s sweet vocals. With lyrics like, “Life’s a bummer, when you’re a hummer. Life’s a drag”, you can feel Corgan’s pain. As a 16-year-old at the time, I was ripe for the picking. This song fell right into my wheelhouse, as many 16-year-olds are hitting that wondering stage in their life. I’ll be fascinated to learn what my 14-year-old experiences when he turns 16, and I’ll be curious to learn if he attaches to any music.
The vibe continues with Rocket. Corgan’s guitar sounds like a smoke alarm going off over and over again, only that smoke alarm is so melodic, you forget about running to the alarm to turn it off, and you end up just closing your eyes and letting it play out.
Soma does not veer off the same train tracks. With lyrics like, “I’m all by myself. As I’ve always felt”, you’re almost like, “Ok Billy, we get it. Your sad”. But again, as a 16-year-old who was doing NOTHING at the time but dreaming of being a rock star, this resonated closely with me.
Geek U.S.A picks up the pace and does not disappoint. This gives the heavier, grungier fans a little medicine, but it’s placed along well with again the melodic distortion of Mayonaise, Spaceboy, Silverf**k, Sweet Sweet and Luna. These are ALL classics. Seriously! No duds. This is one of THOSE albums.
The album’s cover art is an artistic photo of two young girls embracing in a loving hug. The girls were around 6 or 7 years old at the time. One of them is wearing fairy princess costume wings. The album cover’s meaning relates to two sharing the same dream. It has been confirmed the two girls were not Siamese twins, although several rumors existed stating otherwise, until that was debunked not long after the album’s release in 1993.
The album has sold over 4 million copies in the United States and over 6 million worldwide. For album sales, this is a strong showing, especially for when it came out in 1993. The band catapulted to almost instant celebrity status. They would headline the Lollapalooza tour in the summer of 1994 and in addition, they would grow internationally. But like many bands, the disagreements within the quartet escalated.
To start, band leader, Billy Corgan possessed a certain personality that bordered on controlling. Many will argue that successful bands need a member who pushes the others. However, Corgan’s approach could be seen as a bit aggressive. In one video interview I saw, when talking about the preparation of the recording sessions for Siamese Dream, Billy noted, “I gave the band a year and a half to prepare for the album, and yet they kept failing me”. At the same time, and perhaps to support Billy’s claim, drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was seriously addicted to heroin. Producer Butch Vig commented in an interview that despite the fact they were recording far away from New York and LA, the drug dealers had no trouble finding Jimmy during the sessions in Atlanta.
For the next two decades, there would be a revolving door in terms of drummers coming in and out of the band. The same would be true for the bass player, D’Arcy Wretsky. She has been in and out of the band several times. I feel like D’Arcy was unique. There were very few predominately male bands in this early 90s genre with a female band member. Towards the beginning of the Pumpkins existence, Wretsky and lead guitarist James Iha had developed a romantic relationship. If you know of the band members in Heart and Fleetwood Mac, this usually DOES NOT work out for the best.
Wretsky and Iha broke up as a couple prior to the recording of Siamese Dream. In most cases, people in this situation would go their separate ways and likely not speak with the other again. In this case, they had to work and travel with each other virtually every night! Obviously, this created some major friction. Despite this friction, Billy didn’t necessarily help when he decided to play all the guitars and 99% of the bass on the album. It is believed that this further strengthened the friction between the band members. But perhaps Billy had to because he wasn’t satisfied with D’Arcy’s commitment during recording.
Chamberlain was later fired in 1996 due to his heroin use. D’Arcy left in 1999. Replaced by Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, the band continued to tour. Billy accused D’Arcy of getting fired for being a “mean spirited drug addict”, and to add insult to injury he noted that James Iha was responsible for breaking up the band in 2000.
Sadly, D’Arcy suffered from serious drug addiction and her life did not progress in a positive direction after her split from the Pumpkins. There are several different reports as to the status of Wretsky’s health today, and Jack Bates currently plays bass in the band, who recently finished a world tour as this review was being published in late 2024.
Whichever camp you belong to, D’Arcy’s or Billy’s, the Pumpkins have been touring around the world for several years now. I recently saw them play with Jane’s Addiction in 2022. Although the newer music is not for me, I appreciated listening to them revisit some older tracks. During their 2022 and 2024 tours, other than Today, Disarm and Cherub Rock (the three pop hits), there weren’t many songs in the regular setlist from Gish or Siamese Dream, which is terribly unfortunate. This left me spending many nights pondering whether Billy is holding back. Is he neglecting his older, devoted, longtime fans from hearing the music they grew up loving? Or as a true artist, is Billy just looking to move on from the past? Robert Plant is a fine example of this. It seems like he wants very little to do with Led Zeppelin. Billy is not this far removed but I think it’s very realistic for true artists to be most focused on their “newer” work. Whereas I am of the camp that the Pumpkins first two albums were MAGICAL, arguably some of the best to come of out this genre in the 1990s, and all their albums post Siamese Dream didn’t really speak to me. But while attending their Boston show in 2022, I noticed how many newer songs they played and how their sound was, in my opinion, quite different from the grungy sound of Gish and Siamese Dream. Not to mention, Billy’s onstage outfit consisted of what looked like a long, full black body suit with a black dress and white paint all over his bald head and face. It made me wonder whether he might be back on the “White Panda” if he was ever on it at all (I’m talking about heroin, sadly).
Either way, it seemed as if Billy wanted to distance himself from his older tracks, the tracks I feel are the foundation of their existence. An interview that I recently saw from 2023, showed Billy stating something that SHOCKED me. In an interview Billy did for the 30th anniversary of the album’s release last year, he noted that he’s been pushing for a few years to do a Siamese Dream themed tour. But he claims that tour promoters have told him, “There’s no interest in the market”.
WHAT???? Did anyone ever ask any true old school Pumpkins fans? I think not! I am sorry to say but I call B.S. on this and urge Billy and the band to reconsider. But now that the album is passed its 30th anniversary, perhaps if a full album tour of Siamese Dream ever comes true, we might have to wait until the 35th or the 40th anniversary?
Whichever way you shake the animal, Siamese Dream is to be enjoyed by everyone. If you have not heard it yet, which I doubt if you’re reading this review, you must! Billy’s writing themes on the album include suicidal ideation and longing for a family he never had. It is very youth themed, which spoke to me as a 16-year-old. You also pick up on his references to struggling with his relationships in the band as they started experiencing success.
I think Jimmy Chamberlain said it best in another interview I saw with him during their 2023 anniversary concert (one concert unfortunately):
“I think the reason people focus on Siamese Dream is because it’s of that time. It’s really a postcard from that time that allows people to reminisce in a way that takes them back to the 90s when MTV was going on. Music was such a cultural driver at that point with videos and concerts and Lollapalooza and the things that were happening in and around alternative rock. Siamese Dream was a part of the foundation of that movement.
Well said, Jimmy. Well said. No go get your shine box and listen to Siamese Dream again. You won’t regret it.
