Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Malice · 24-10-2011 08:06PM #1

Does the news that this album is 16 years old today make anyone else feel old?

At the time of its release I was already well acquainted with the Pumpkins having played Siamese Dream, Gish and Pisces Iscariot to death so I was eagerly anticipating this release. It was one of the first albums I bought where I obviously loved the heavier songs but the lighter stuff still appealed to me enough that I wasn't skipping them (or fast forwarding as I had to do with the original double-tape edition

).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_k1wdR_iMo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-r-V0uK4u0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_IGpMW6yko

All in all this is definitely one of my favourite albums ever. What do the rest of you think?

--LOS-- · 24-10-2011 10:48PM

It's funny that I saw this thread, only started listening to them recently after hearing some of their stuff on in tower, I've been listening nearly constantly since and mostly to this album. Don't know why I even started listening to that particular album but it is addictive stuff. 1995 sounds younger than saying it is 16 years old :P

du Maurier · 24-10-2011 11:03PM

Yeah, an excellent album in my opinion. Had a swarthy mix of racheted up belters like Zero, An Ode to No one, XYU and then peppered throughout it a delicate subtlety in Porcelina.., Stumbleine, to give a nice juxtaposition to a number of the main singles. Still has resonance. A sublime composition. Might have a listen now..

Mushy · 24-10-2011 11:37PM

Immense album. Will listen in the morning.

anonymous_joe · 24-10-2011 11:40PM

I was much older when I discovered it, but fcuk.

Great album. Almost overblown but it just about makes it through.

Sleepy · 24-10-2011 11:46PM

'twas the album that introduced me to the pumpkins. Tonight Tonight remains one of my all time favourite songs!

jpm4 · 25-10-2011 12:21AM

Definitely the album of my angst ridden young.....I still think it holds up, some of the lyrics seem dodgy enough but overall still a classic.

seachto7 · 25-10-2011 12:23AM

saw em touring this in 1997. Unreal......It's good enough as a double album, but if it had been whittled down to just one album it would have been a fantastic album...

anonymous_joe · 25-10-2011 12:50AM

seachto7 wrote: »

saw em touring this in 1997. Unreal......It's good enough as a double album, but if it had been whittled down to just one album it would have been a fantastic album...

I saw 'em touring in, what, 08 was it?

PeterIanStaker · 25-10-2011 08:46AM

Brilliant album I must dig it out, don't know ehere my compy is ATM. And it makes me feel mature rather than old,

.

chin_grin · 25-10-2011 09:00AM

Still have the double cassette! I've recently tried to listen to it again and there are a few timeless songs but the "slow" ones aren't to my taste any more. Aw. Although the track they put on Transformers soundtrack was quite good. What, don't look at me like that! Think it was Doomsday Clock.....

Mutz · 25-10-2011 09:06AM

I was actually just listening to the pumpkins the last day after I dont know how many years!

Discovered them first with this album. 16 Years doesn't actually seem all that long ago. Got all the albums now, but I still think Siamese Dream and Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness are the best. The later albums weren't great imo.

Favourite song is Through the eyes of ruby. Good heavy guitar and savage drums

Kess73 · 25-10-2011 09:14AM

Only 16 years. It actually feels longer since it was released.

On a weird sidenote, I lent my double cassette version of the album to a friend a few months after it was released. she then had the album nicked off of them by a "friend" of hers in Limerick.

When I moved to Limerick on a full time basis some six years ago or whatever it is now, her friend returned my double cassette to me.:D

Mr. Presentable · 25-10-2011 09:21AM

Big Pumpkins fan. Favourite album would be Siamese Dream, however. One thing about Mellon that I always hated is the name of the album.

Mellon Collie is not clever, funny, just contrived sounding.

Kess73 · 25-10-2011 10:27AM

Mr. Presentable wrote: »

Big Pumpkins fan. Favourite album would be Siamese Dream, however. One thing about Mellon that I always hated is the name of the album.

Mellon Collie is not clever, funny, just contrived sounding.

I always liked the idea of having a melon and a cauliflower on the cover with "and the infinite sadness" printed underneath.:D

Saw a mock up cover down like that years and years ago and it looked great along with another mock up done with the same picture but with only the band name on the cover and no "and the infinite sadness".

TheStickyBandit · 25-10-2011 11:14AM

A timeless classic imo.

Temaz · 25-10-2011 11:16AM

Jesus, I'm getting old!!

delbertgrady · 25-10-2011 01:24PM

A spider, a ray gun, a seagull, a rat in a cage.

I bought it on tape in the Virgin Megastore on Aston Quay the day it came out, but I subsequently bought it on vinyl and CD as well. I absolutely loved it when it was first released and for a few years it hovered around the top of my "Favourite Albums of All Time" list, but I lost interest in Smashing Pumpkins around the time of Machina and at the moment, I don't even have anything of theirs on my iPod, though I've often been tempted to load up most of The Aeroplane Flies High box set.

I liked the fact that Mellon Collie was ludicrously ambitious and had a mix of lengthy tracks and more conventional tunes, not to mention a handful of hit singles. I remember for convenience that I put it on a 120 minute cassette, but the best way to split the album was to have Side One and Side Three on the first side, and Side Two and Side Four on the other, 'cos otherwise one set of songs wouldn't fit.

I also remember making up a tape with all the long songs from it (I also included The Aeroplane Flies High, if I remember correctly, it being eight and a half minutes long), so it was like having some bombastic, heavy prog, seven-track album. Ah, the days before iTunes playlists...

SilverScreen · 25-10-2011 04:50PM

Definitely not their best album. It does contain some excellent songs though such as 'Muzzle', 'Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans' and 'Thru The Eyes Of Ruby' but overall the album would have been better off chopped down to a single filler-free album. Billy's lyrics are lacking as well compared to the likes of Siamese Dream and Adore and also 'We Only Come Out At Night' is the Pumpkins' equivalent of 'Yellow Submarine'.

It's a good album but far from their best and far from a classic. I looking forward to the reissues of Gish and Siamese Dream which are going to contain live dvds.

Malice · 25-10-2011 06:07PM

Just on the filler comment I'd be interested to see what folks regard as filler on the album. Here's the tracklist:

Disc one – Dawn to Dusk
1. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"
2. "Tonight, Tonight"
3. "Jellybelly"
4. "Zero"
5. "Here is No Why"
6. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
7. "To Forgive"
8. "Fuck You (An Ode to No One)"
9. "Love"
10. "Cupid de Locke"
11. "Galapogos"
12. "Muzzle"
13. "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans"
14. "Take Me Down"

Disc two – Twilight to Starlight
1. "Where Boys Fear to Tread"
2. "Bodies"
3. "Thirty-Three"
4. "In the Arms of Sleep"
5. "1979"
6. "Tales of a Scorched Earth"
7. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby"
8. "Stumbleine"
9. "X.Y.U."
10. "We Only Come Out at Night"
11. "Beautiful"
12. "Lily (My One and Only)"
13. "By Starlight"
14. "Farewell and Goodnight"

For me tracks 7, 10 (although I do like the lyrics) and 14 off CD 1 and tracks 3, 4 and 8 off CD 2 are the only ones I'd class as filler. To be honest though Take Me Down and Stumbeline are the only tracks I'd class as bad on the whole release. Track 7 on CD 1 is a handy comedown after rocking out to Bullet With Butterfly Wings, tracks 3 and 4 on CD 2 are catchy in their own way but just lack something.

MetalDog · 25-10-2011 06:10PM

Great album, and yeah I feel a tad old, but in a "yeah I remember when this was released" way!

S.M.B. · 25-10-2011 06:42PM

Malice wrote: »

For me tracks 7, 10 (although I do like the lyrics) and 14 off CD 1 and tracks 3, 4 and 8 off CD 2 are the only ones I'd class as filler. To be honest though Take Me Down and Stumbeline are the only tracks I'd class as bad on the whole release. Track 7 on CD 1 is a handy comedown after rocking out to Bullet With Butterfly Wings, tracks 3 and 4 on CD 2 are catchy in their own way but just lack something.

Stumbeline? Bad?

:eek:

iroced · 25-10-2011 06:43PM

I got the album a few years after it came out. Only knew the radio hits from it and was not that impressed. Maybe they overplayed them on the French radios... Thus I was nicely surprised to discover a very ambitious, rich and varied album. Different sounds, different atmospheres, different genres from Hard/Punk Rock to more intimist ballads, with some pretty nice arrangements. In brief a great album. It doesn't make us feel younger but well some albums are "immortal". I believe this one is one of them.

johnny_ultimate · 25-10-2011 06:48PM

I haven't listened to it in a while, but it was an important step in my transition from generic pop punk / nu-metal into quote good unquote music.

Bullet With Butterfly Wings was a revelation at the time. Later became very fond of Porcelina. Epic stuff.

+1 on Stumbleine. Really great song.

Malice · 25-10-2011 07:07PM

S.M.B. wrote: »

Stumbeline? Bad?

:eek:

Yep, the solo fingerpicking bores me, the song itself plods along without going anywhere and probably most importantly, it's sandwiched between two rocking seven minute epics so I pretty much always skip it. Seriously, what do you folks see in it that I don't?

johnny_ultimate · 25-10-2011 07:19PM

Malice wrote: »

Yep, the solo fingerpicking bores me, the song itself plods along without going anywhere and probably most importantly, it's sandwiched between two rocking seven minute epics so I pretty much always skip it. Seriously, what do you folks see in it that I don't?

It's a nice relief from the rock epics, and rather relaxing. What I've always loved about the album is the beautiful contrast between songs, and even within songs. Indeed, the more distorted disc two can come across as exhausting, so it's welcome downtime.

I also love the annunciation of 'juke box ****up' and the concurrent backing track pause.

S.M.B. · 25-10-2011 08:08PM

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

It's a nice relief from the rock epics, and rather relaxing. What I've always loved about the album is the beautiful contrast between songs, and even within songs. Indeed, the more distorted disc two can come across as exhausting, so it's welcome downtime.

I also love the annunciation of 'juke box ****up' and the concurrent backing track pause.

This is exactly what I was going to say! Love the delivery of that line with the pause in the guitar playing.

The trifecta of Thru the Eyes of Ruby, Stumbeline and XYU is probably my favourite stretch of the album.

SilverScreen · 25-10-2011 10:17PM

If I was to make it into a single album it would probably look like this (apologies if I didn't include one of your favourite tracks)

Disc one – Dawn to Dusk
1. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"
2. "Tonight, Tonight"
3. "Jellybelly"
4. "Zero"
5. "Here is No Why"
6. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
7. "To Forgive"
8. "Fuck You (An Ode to No One)"
9. "Love"
10. "Cupid de Locke"
11. "Galapogos"
12. "Muzzle"
13. "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans"
14. "Take Me Down"

Disc two – Twilight to Starlight
1. "Where Boys Fear to Tread"
2. "Bodies"
3. "Thirty-Three"
4. "In the Arms of Sleep"
5. "1979"
6. "Tales of a Scorched Earth"
7. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby"
8. "Stumbleine"
9. "X.Y.U."
10. "We Only Come Out at Night"
11. "Beautiful"
12. "Lily (My One and Only)"
13. "By Starlight"
14. "Farewell and Goodnight"

Not too sure about the sequencing but I'd definitely end the album with 'Porcelina...'.

Kess73 · 26-10-2011 04:00PM

Zero1986 wrote: »

If I was to make it into a single album it would probably look like this (apologies if I didn't include one of your favourite tracks)

Disc one – Dawn to Dusk
1. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"
2. "Tonight, Tonight"
3. "Jellybelly"
4. "Zero"
5. "Here is No Why"
6. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
7. "To Forgive"
8. "Fuck You (An Ode to No One)"
9. "Love"
10. "Cupid de Locke"
11. "Galapogos"
12. "Muzzle"
13. "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans"
14. "Take Me Down"

Disc two – Twilight to Starlight
1. "Where Boys Fear to Tread"
2. "Bodies"
3. "Thirty-Three"
4. "In the Arms of Sleep"
5. "1979"
6. "Tales of a Scorched Earth"
7. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby"
8. "Stumbleine"
9. "X.Y.U."
10. "We Only Come Out at Night"
11. "Beautiful"
12. "Lily (My One and Only)"
13. "By Starlight"
14. "Farewell and Goodnight"

Not too sure about the sequencing but I'd definitely end the album with 'Porcelina...'.

I would take Stumbleine and To Forgive out as well as what you have already removed, if I had to make it a single cd 14 track album .

johnny_ultimate · 26-10-2011 05:47PM

I'd agree the noise:quality ratio is a bit askew for me on disc two. If I had half an hour of listening, a lot of it would be dominated by disc one, despite some real gems on the disc two (1979, Ruby, XYU etc..).

I do like We Only Come Out at Night though.

26-10-2011 05:58PM

I met Billy and Jimmy in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Hung out with them for 30 minutes or so. I thanked Billy for the song "Muzzle" as it was on of my favourite songs as a teenager (yah yah teen angst, the works!). Anyway, they closed their encore that night with a storming version of Muzzle.

I still totally take the credit for that one

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

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