Smashing Pumpkins — Zeitgeist

Sure, it wasn't as anticipated a reunion as, say, The Police, but that's only because Billy Corgan drew out the whole goddamn affair — the newspaper ads, the MySpace teasers, the expected failure of Zwan — to the point where there was no choice but a full-on Smashing Pumpkins reunion. The Pumpkins purists, however, are still waiting. SP circa 2007 contain only two of the originals, Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain, and the entirety of Zeitgeist is in their post-post-grunge hands. Out of the 12 tracks, "That's The Way (My Love Is)" comes closest to capturing SP in their heyday, notwithstanding the shit-kicking "Doomsday Clock" that, although seemingly tailor-made for the Live Earth crowd, is leaps and bounds better than boring first single "Tarantula." The rest of Zeitgeist is as varied as the Bald One's moods, swinging from ragers ("7 Shades Of Black") to snorefests (the nine-minute "United States"), and most often striding the median between the two. They don't reinvent the mold they created more than a decade ago, but they fill it quite nicely, proving that this is Corgan's best outlet and not just Smashing Pumpkins in name only.

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