Audio CD review:
The Smashing Pumpkins - MACHINA/The Machines of God

The Smashing Pumpkins - MACHINA/The Machines of God

Band: The Smashing Pumpkins Title: MACHINA/The Machines of God Rating: Release Date: 29 February, 2000 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Everlasting Gaze 2: Raindrops + Sunshowers 3: Stand Inside Your Love 4: I Of The Mourning 5: The Sacred And Profane 6: Try, Try, Try 7: Heavy Metal Machine 8: This Time 9: The Imploding Voice 10: Glass And The Ghost Children 11: Wound 12: The Crying Tree Of Mercury 13: With Every Light 14: Blue Skies Bring Tears 15: Age Of Innocence

Editoral Review On their fifth album, the Pumpkins attempt to reclaim the higher ground they dominated with the peerless Siamese Dream and the sprawling 28-track opus Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. With the doubters hovering round his band following the rock-is-dead pronouncement that preceded the flawed electronic dabblings of Adore, Machina finds Billy Corgan desperate to prove everyone, not least himself, wrong. As a result, they hit the ground running on Machina, exploding into life with "The Everlasting Gaze" and its firestorm of guitars and heavy metaphysical thunder. There are some quintessential Pumpkins moments here, notably "Stand Inside Your Love," which soars away on a spiraling guitar solo, and "Try, Try, Try," which taps into Corgan's ever-present melancholy. At 73 minutes long, Machina overstays its welcome, beginning to flag, ironically, at the self-aggrandizing "Heavy Metal Machine. " No matter--the Pumpkins have made their point with brutal grace. --Mike Pattenden .. You can see a complete list of all The Smashing Pumpkins discography, or go back to the The Smashing Pumpkins tabs