Riaan Wolmarans
CD OFTHEWEEK
‘You know I’m not dead,” sings Billy Corgan confidently on Everlasting Gaze, the hit opening track of The Smashing Pumpkins’ latest CD, Machina:The Machines of God (Virgin).
But on the track Heavy Metal Machine, he wonders:”If I were dead, would my records sell?” And the Pumpkins are dead, for all purposes, after Corgan announced the band’s imminent break-up.
If Machina is the way the Pumpkins would like us to remember them, we will have mostly fond memories. On the whole it makes a formidable CDfrom an experienced band, but the whole is bigger than the parts, and all the tracks do not survive that well on their own.
The 73-minute CD, produced by Flood and Corgan, kicks off with the afore-mentioned Everlasting Gaze, with the band in top powerful rock form. The impetus gets slightly lost on the subsequent Raindrops + Sunshowers, and the rest of the album mostly retains a laid-back flavour, with ballady mellowness on tracks such as Stand inside Your Love,This Time and The Sacred and Profane. You end up waiting for a more formidable sound, like that served up nicely on Heavy Metal Machine.
Among the 15 tracks one does get a taste of the Pumpkins in all their flavours, though – from heavy rocking and power chords to catchy pop-like hooks and electronic sounds. The lyrics are interesting, as ever; you know there is meaning behind the words. And the well- designed CDbooklet with its Vasily Kafanov paintings certainly makes the Pumpkins go out in style.
Machina is not brilliant by itself, but rather a very good reflection on a sometimes troubled but overall excellent band’s career.