Smashing Pumpkins, dark technology and pop-flavored choruses

On November 27, 2020 the Smashing Pumpkins released their eleventh album, “Cyr”. At the time he was called to talk about the album for us Mark of Milia.

It’s hard to make long-term predictions when you’re Billy Corgan.

Between ambitions and pretensions, the bald Chicago musician has long characterized each of his releases with an extraordinary yearning for grandeur, embarking on hundreds of projects that have not always reached a conclusion. However, from the rediscovered chemistry with his old comrades in arms James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain, the leader of the Smashing Pumpkins has recovered a creative streak that he now seemed to have lost, complete with the complicity of an old fox like Rick Rubin. Until now, of course. Because Corgan really doesn’t want to sit down too much. Thus, he once again reversed the prospects to do what he prefers all by himself, without external producers and probably even without the rest of the band. Ending up losing, as only he can do, the sense of proportion. “CYR”, the ideal continuation of Vol. 1 of the “Shiny And Oh So Bright” concept, is an album that from the very first bars moves away from the pompous and layered sound typical of the Smashing Pumpkins, to embrace another, swollen and full of synthesizers .

In twenty songs, the new, double album by Corgan and his associates is filled with dark technology and choruses with a blatantly pop flavor which, from the dark “Purple blood” to the more sunny “Wrath”, recall the typical suggestions of Depeche Mode, New Order , Wire and even The Killers. Following his instinct, Billy preferred to move away from a guitar-driven dynamic to follow an intuition that he felt was more in step with the times, but also in perfect harmony with the Eighties. Surrounding himself with sequencers, drum machines and the usual hypertrophic individualism, he arrived at a record full of melodic hooks, female choirs, driving bass lines, hand claps, but also to shoot an animated series of five episodes with the songs of “CYR” to act as a soundtrack.

Yet another style revolution dictated by their frontman, who moved the Smashing Pumpkins into a more relaxed territory and perhaps also full of new hopes.

In the initial “The color of love” they declare the grayness of a love, while in “Hidden sun” they ask themselves which dolphin can bring serenity, constantly searching for a mystical pathos which in reality appears almost unattainable in a work of this kind. Corgan here prefers to settle on the programmed rhythms, giving few, if not very few, opportunities to his companions to offer their contribution, in a long sequence of songs which ultimately all end up looking a little alike. Thus, if pieces like “Telegenix” and “Adrennalynne” push the beats, others like “Ramona”, “Birch groove” and “Confessions of a dopamine addict” let themselves go into a vague romanticism that is intertwined with the dark spirals of ” Anno Satana” and “Black forest, black hills”, but the entire program in all its minutiae struggles to be truly compelling. Yet, melancholic tracks like “Save your tears” and the more nervous “Wytch” bring back a dose of dramatic impetuosity that seemed to have been lost amidst so much electronic groove and overly reassuring voices.

Naturally, some generous cuts in the editing phase would have allowed a 72-minute album to be less dispersive. There is certainly no shortage of excellent episodes in the grooves of “CYR”, but in a work that seeks modernity by giving up drums in more than half of the songs in favor of a computer, even the bloodiest component of the group gets lost, the one that can still balance the protagonism and capricious exuberance of the great house dictator Smashing Pumpkins. Unlike the noir spell of “Adore”, which reacted with digital innovations to a difficult period full of uncertainty, now the widespread mood seems to be moving in a completely opposite direction. Billy Corgan’s tenacity in wanting to conceive a work that is not only pretentious but also casual, even though he himself is not very gifted with this requirement, manages to surprise and terrify at the same time. A bold, vital and brilliant record, in its own way, made by those who seem to have never wanted to have that lightness.