dougydarkangel link=topic=1552.msg25705#msg25705 date=1181551110]
DON link=topic=1552.msg25656#msg25656 date=1181503583]
Should we, the Smashing Pumpkins Fans, not just give a f**k about critics? I mean, they used to hate MACHINA, one of my favorite albums.
And I think they didn't like it, because they haven't understood anything about Billy Corgan and his music.
Maybe it will be the same with Zeitgesit. I don't care about that, what other people say concerning the Smashing Pumpkins, because this is (and I think, I "speak" for everyone here) the music I like.


I agree, but it would be nice to not have people hate you for liking it. Call me selfish but i want them to get good reviews, i want them to sell out shows and sell lots of albums, i want the pumpkins to revive rock and show the world that substance in the music is far more important than substance in the chest area.


You're right so far, but where I come from (southern Germany), the Smashing Pumpkins aren't known and accepted anyway.
When I discovered the Smashing Pumpkins in my teenageyears, everyone told me that it's a strange and "unnormal" kind of music within "a horrible singing voice".
For that reason I will love Zeitgeist and I willvisit their shows whether critics finally understand Billy Corgan's brilliance in writing beautiful songs or not; 'cause I love his kind of music.

I'm sorry to say this, but the people in southern germany (you excluded) are morons.

I care a lot about what critics think, maybe a little too much sometimes. But it's a fact that critics are necessary, THERE HAS TO BE CRITICISM!
Good music exists, but bad music also exists. The line is really thin and someone needs to tell us where that line is (it doesn't even matter if they're right or wrong, it's just to give us some direction).

The reviews that I've read about the belgian and the dutch show were not very good. One was okay, one was really negative and one said that it was kind of dissapointing. I was there at the "dissapointing" show, and I must say that it may have been the least dissapointing event in my whole life.
When they review a show from the smashing pumpkins reunion tour, they review something that is almost holy to millions of people on this planet. They cannot possibly think that when they say that it's bad music, that music suddenly becomes superfluous... just because they aren't fans of the first hour.

Everyone knows that the smashing pumpkins have had an enormous influence on the modern rock scene, and if they still manage to satisfy their fans, then give me one good reason why they should get EVEN ONE bad review.

I've learnt to hate critics. As diverse as they are it is usually a matter of personal opinion that is why I never judge an album by its review. Then again as someone else has already said it is nice for something that you love to get a good review. So far the reviews of the album seem pretty mixed so I'm kinda getting a love/hate vibe. Some critics claim it to be the album of the year, others say its the worst. I dunno what to believe until I've personally heard it!

As a music critic myself, I must play devil's advocate (a little.) For the most part, album/concert reviews are aimed toward fairweather fans or people just opening their ears to a band for the first time. They don't mean to belittle our reverence for a certain band (well, some do but they're the kind of self-righteous douches who didn't have any friends in high school and think the only way they can be deemed cool now is to supplant off-kilter music and praise the "now" sound.) Reviews are an initiation to the music, if you will.

No doubt, we all want to see our precious Pumpkins get glistening reviews. In some cases they will, others they won't. I'd advise to focus on the positive and ignore the negative (but also, don't worship blindly. Corgan isn't infalliable.)

these fucking critics are saying the same bulshit lies for the Secret show and the concert of Madrid

I just read the review that rolling stone gave Tarantula, and they killed it for us pumpkin fans. "Billy Corgan's not-terribly-tuneful whine and a general lack of definition (and hooks), this sounds like some random pseudo-metal outfit bashing away in a bar."

Funnily enough alot of the reviews I have read about the shows have been very good. I think I've read about 5 from magazines by now & they have all be positive ones.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2007/06/smashing_pumpkins_zeitgeist_fi.php

That is a positive track by track review of Zeitgeist which will surely make you all salivate.

Great! thanks for posting.
Pomp & Circumstance promise to be the big good sorprise of the disc.

jazzman1717 link=topic=1552.msg26523#msg26523 date=1182170728] http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2007/06/smashing_pumpkins_zeitgeist_fi.php

That is a positive track by track review of Zeitgeist which will surely make you all salivate.


I liked it... but I was extremely disappointed to read what she wrote about "United States"... I love that song so much (from what I've heard). I'm glad "(Come On) Let's Go" sounds like it will be better than what the title suggests... and personally, I love the lyrics to "Bleeding the Orchid". I would love to disagree with a lot of what the reviewer said, but I can't until I hear the album (even though I know I'll love pretty much every note of it).

SADPETERPAN link=topic=1552.msg26534#msg26534 date=1182175767]
Great! thanks for posting.
Pomp & Circumstance promise to be the big good sorprise of the disc.


Abso-friggin-lutely. That song ranks among the most beautiful Billy's ever written in my opinion.

Actually, today I read the first (that I've seen) reveiw of Zeitgeist. They reveiwed in this month's issue of Maxim Blender. It wasn't overly favourable but it wasn't overly critical. It was a really short review of a few paragraphs or so and it received a 3 out of 5 stars rating. I actually read Blender quite frequently but I believe the new album will get far better reveiws after it's initial listens.

As seen in Blender:


PEOPLE PERSON
Rock Mastermind Returns With Big, Mushy Message:Love

Smashing Pumpkins
ZEITGEIST ***
martha's music/reprise

Billy Corgan needs some new friends. The Uncle Fester of alternative rock used to have lots: Laser-Show fantasies like 1993's Siamese Dream created a Smashing Pumpkins nation by making geeky angst feel heroic. But when the band smashing into a wall of drugs and acrimony, Corgan turned needy, offering a leftover album online for free in 2000, even trying to start a reunion via a newspaper ad (bassist D'Arcy Wretzky and guitarist James Iha must get their new from TV, as only loyal Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain turned up).

If Corgan's longing for connection sounds kinda emo, it should: He was turning pain into pomp before My Chemical Romance cracked a Goosebumps book.
And the first Pumpkins album in seven years is a plea for love and meaning in a dissaffected era. The most awe-inspiring track is called "United States," a complex, nine-minute maelstrom where Corgan keens,"Let Me Prove Something Real-like I should" in full dweeb-king wail. There's even a drum solo. Zeitgeist's orgy of avalanche rhythms, cascading riffs and sky-licking guitar is as grandiose as ever(The solo on "Tarantula" sounds like a nuke hitting a Guitar Center), but the bombast is softened as Corgan reaches out for shame-sharinng community.

"We Can Fail in Style," he sings in the symphonic slow-dance "Pomp and Circumstance." But as he emerges from the eternal midnight of the crushingly heavy "7 Shades of Black" into morning bliss on "Bring The Light", he finds something his inheritors are too cool for: sweet, goofy hope. When he sings "we are stars," he isn't just talking about himself and his guitar tech. He's including us too. Corgan needs all the Pumpkin People he can yank into his orbit.

Jon Dolan


~Efrim