Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
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| Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | |||||
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| Studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins | |||||
| Released | October 24, 1995 | ||||
| Recorded | March–August 1995 at Pumpkinland, Sadlands, Bugg Studios, Chicago Recording Company; The Village Recorder | ||||
| Genre | Alternative rock | ||||
| Length | 121:50 | ||||
| Label | Virgin | ||||
| Producer | Alan Moulder, Billy Corgan, Flood | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| The Smashing Pumpkins chronology | |||||
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| Singles from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | |||||
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Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is the third album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released on October 24, 1995 on Virgin Records. Produced by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, Flood and Alan Moulder, the 28-track album was released as a two-disc CD and triple LP. Led by the single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", the album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, a first for the group. The album spawned four more singles over the course of 1996 and has been certified nine times platinum.
Praised by critics for its ambition and scope, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness earned the band seven Grammy Award nominations in 1997. The album was voted the 29th greatest album of all time in 1998 by Q magazine readers. In 2003, the album was ranked number 487 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
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[edit] Recording and production
After the 13-month Siamese Dream tour, Corgan immediately began writing songs for the band's third album.[1] From the outset, the band intended the new record to be a double album. Corgan said, "We almost had enough material to make Siamese Dream a double album. With this new album, I really liked the notion that we would create a wider scope in which to put other kinds of material we were writing."[2] Corgan felt that the band's musical approach was running its course, and wanted the band to approach the album as if it were its last.[3] Corgan described the album at the time to the music press as "The Wall for Generation X", a comparison with Pink Floyd's famous two-LP concept album.[4]
The band decided to forgo working with Butch Vig, who had produced the group's previous albums, and selected Flood and Alan Moulder as co-producers. Corgan explained, "To be completely honest, I think it was a situation where we'd become so close to Butch that it started to work to our disadvantage [. . .] I just felt we had to force the situation, sonically, and take ourselves out of normal Pumpkin recording mode. I didn't want to repeat past Pumpkin work."[2] In April 1995, the band began recording in a rehearsal space, instead of entering the studio straight away.[5] At these sessions, the band recorded rough rhythm tracks with Flood. Originally designed to create a rough draft for the record, the rehearsal space sessions ended up becoming the new album's foundation.[1] During recording with Flood, the producer insisted the band set aside time each day devoted to jamming or songwriting, practices the band had never engaged in before during recording sessions. Corgan said, "Working like that kept the whole process very interesting—kept it from becoming a grind."[2] Following the rehearsal space sessions with Flood, Alan Moulder and the band applied the finishing touches to the rough tracks at the Chicago Recording Company studio.[1] The electronic looping and sampling was added in post-production, using a Power Macintosh 8100 running Pro Tools.[6]
Corgan sought to eliminate the tension that permeated the Siamese Dream recording sessions. Corgan said regarding the problems with recording Siamese Dream, "[T]o me, the biggest offender was the insidious amounts of time that everyone spends waiting for guitar parts to be overdubbed. There were literally weeks where no one had anything to do but sit and wait." The band decided to counter idleness by using two recording rooms at the same time. This tactic allowed Corgan to work on vocals and song arrangements in one room, while second guitarist James Iha recorded lead guitar parts in the other.[2] Iha and bassist D'arcy Wretzky had a greater role in the recording of the album, unlike in Siamese Dream, where Corgan was rumoured to have recorded all the bass and guitar parts himself.[7] James Iha commented,
The big change is that Billy is not being the big 'I do this-I do that.' It's much better. The band arranged a lot of songs for this record, and the song writing process was organic. The circumstances of the last record and the way that we worked was really bad.[8]
When the recording sessions concluded, the band had 57 completed songs which were up for contention to be included on Mellon Collie, according to statements in interviews.[9] This culminated in a double album release featuring 28 songs, with the 5 main singles being backed by the remaining 23 songs. The album was going to have 32 songs, but this was cut back to the 28 songs.[10] Bassist D'arcy Wretzky recorded numerous backup vocal parts which were all cut, except those recorded for "Beautiful." She also sings in "Farewell and Goodnight."[11]
[edit] Music
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"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" One of the album's more aggressive songs, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" was the first single from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness "1979" "1979" from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Problems playing the files? See media help.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is a loose concept album, with the songs intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death.[8] Billy Corgan has said that the album is based on "the human condition of mortal sorrow".[12] The sprawling nature of the album means that it utilizes several different diverse styles amongst the songs, contrasting what some critics felt was the "one dimensional flavor" of the previous two albums.[1] A much wider variety of instrumentation is used, such as piano ("Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"), synthesizers and drum loops ("1979"), string orchestration ("Tonight, Tonight"), and even salt shakers and scissors ("Cupid de Locke").[1]
All guitars on the album were tuned down a half-step in order to "make the music a little lower", according to Corgan. On some songs, like "Jellybelly", the instruments were also put in a drop D tuning (referred to by Corgan as "the 'grunge tuning'"); this meant the lowest strings on the guitars were actually tuned to C#. There was a greater variety to the number of guitar overdubs utilized than on previous albums. Iha said, "[I]n the past, everything had to be overdubbed and layered—guitar overkill. That wasn't really the train of thought this time, although we did that too." "To Forgive" consists of only one live guitar take, while other songs like "Jellybelly" and "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" contain numerous guitar overdubs. Corgan estimated that "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" had 56 different guitar parts. Corgan and Iha shared soloing duties; Iha estimated that the guitar solo duties were divided "half and half" on the record.[2]
All but two songs on the album were written solely by Corgan. The closing track from the first disc, "Take Me Down", was written and sung by Iha, while the album's final track, "Farewell and Goodnight", was cowritten by Corgan and Iha, and features lead vocals by all four band members. Iha wrote additional songs during the making of the album, but they did not make the final cut. Corgan said in a 1995 Rolling Stone interview, "[T]here are some B sides that James did that are really good. They just don't fit in the context of the album. And part of me feels bad. But over the seven years we've been together, the least uptight part of the band has been the music."[3]
[edit] Release and reception
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was released in October 1995. The following week, Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, an unusual feat for a double-disc album that cost over $20.[13] The album was eventually certified 9.8 times platinum in the United States.[14] At the time, the album was the best-selling double album of the decade.
Christopher John Farley of Time called the album "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet". Farley wrote, "One gets the feeling that the band [. . .] charged ahead on gut instincts; the sheer scope of the album (28 songs) didn't allow for second-guessing or contrivance."[15] Time selected Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as the best album of the year in its year-end "Best of 1995" list.[16] Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A rating; reviewer David Browne praised the group's ambition and wrote, "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is more than just the work of a tortured, finicky pop obsessive. Corgan presents himself as one of the last true believers: someone for whom spewing out this much music results in some sort of high art for the ages. He doesn't seem concerned with persistent alterna-rock questions of 'selling out,' and good for him: He's aiming for something bigger and all-conquering."[17] Rolling Stone gave the album three out of five stars. Reviewer Jim DeRogatis praised the album as "one of the rare epic rock releases whose bulk is justified in the grooves". The writer stated that the album's main flaw was Corgan's lyrics, describing the songwriter as "wallowing in his own misery and grousing about everyone and everything not meeting his expectations." While DeRogatis contended that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness "may even match The Wall in it sonic accomplishments", he argued that Corgan's lyrics lacked in comparison.[18] Mojo reviewer Ben Edmunds also praised the music while criticizing Corgan's lyrics. Edmunds wrote, "[Corgan's] lyrics appear to be the repository for the worst aspects of his most treasured influences. He writes with a heavy metal aptitude for wordplay and an inflated prog-rock conviction of its worth, a deadening combination. But there's a sliver of distance in his rage-mongering now that comments as well as expresses.[19]
The album spawned five singles. While Corgan considered issuing "Jellybelly" as the album's first single, he told Chart it was passed over in favor of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" because "'Bullet's one of those songs where, you know, it's easy to sing along to and [he affects a drawl] ya gotta sell them records."[20] "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" was The Smashing Pumpkins' first single to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 22. "1979", the album's second single, charted at number 12, becoming the band's highest-charting American hit.[21] The "Zero" single was released as an EP with six b-sides. All three of these singles were certified gold by the RIAA.[22] "Tonight, Tonight" and "Thirty-Three", the album's fourth and final singles, reached number 36 and number 39 on the Billboard charts, respectively.[21] While it was not commercially released as a single, the song "Muzzle" was released as a promotional single to radio stations and reached number eight on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and number ten on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.[21]
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness earned The Smashing Pumpkins nominations in seven categories at the 1997 Grammy Awards, the second-highest number of nominations that year.[23] The group was nominated for Album of the Year, Record of the Year ("1979"), Best Alternative Music Performance, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal ("1979"), Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), Best Pop Instrumental Performance ("Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness") and Best Music Video, Short Form ("Tonight, Tonight") at the 1997 Grammy Awards. The band won a single award, for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"; it was the group's first.[24] Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness also ranked at number 14 on the 1995 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[25]
[edit] Packaging
Art direction for the album is credited to Frank Olinsky and Billy Corgan. The actual illustrations are digital collages put together by John Craig. The design for the album cover was inspired by a combination of the face from the painting Fidelity by Jean Baptiste Greuze and the body from the painting Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Raphael.
Corgan described the album's title as "just another one of those pretentious Pumpkin album titles continuing the long line of pretension."[5] When asked about other possible album titles that were considered, the band joked, Sad and Sadder,[26] The Phoenix Meets the Dwarf, Basketball Land, and Baseball City.[5]
[edit] Track listing
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was intended as a two-record set. The CD and cassette versions of the album are divided into two discs, entitled Dawn to Dusk and Twilight to Starlight. The vinyl version, however, is divided into three discs with six sides. The vinyl release also features two bonus songs ("Tonite Reprise" and "Infinite Sadness"), and a completely different track order.
All songs written by Billy Corgan, except where noted.
[edit] CD/Cassette version[edit] Disc one: Dawn to Dusk
[edit] Disc two: Twilight to Starlight
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[edit] 12" Vinyl version (limited edition numbered)[edit] Side one: Dawn
[edit] Side two: Tea Time
[edit] Side three: Dusk
[edit] Side four: Twilight
[edit] Side five: Midnight
[edit] Side six: Starlight
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[edit] Chart positions
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | The Billboard 200[27] | 1 |
| 1995 | Australian ARIA Albums Chart[28] | 1 |
| 1995 | New Zealand Album Charts[29] | 1 |
| 1995 | UK Album Charts | 4 |
| 1995 | Australian Highest Selling Albums | 14 |
| 1995 | German Album Charts | 21 |
| Country | Sales | Certification |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA) | 4,700,000[30] | 9x Platinum[22] |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | 300,000 | Platinum[31] |
[edit] Personnel
- Billy Corgan – lead vocal, guitar, piano, producer, mixer, string arrangement on "Tonight, Tonight", art direction and design
- James Iha – guitar, additional credits for "Take Me Down" and "Farewell and Goodnight": vocals, mixing and additional production
- D'Arcy Wretzky – bass, vocals on "Beautiful" and "Farewell and Goodnight"
- Jimmy Chamberlin – drums, vocals on "Farewell and Goodnight"
- Flood – producer, mixer
- Alan Moulder – producer, mixer
- Chicago Symphony Orchestra – orchestra in "Tonight, Tonight"
- Audrey Riley – string arrangement on "Tonight, Tonight"
- Greg Leisz – pedal and lap steel guitar on "Take Me Down"
- Chris Shepard – recording
- Claudine Pontier – recording assistance
- Dave Kresl – string recording assistance
- Barry "Sounds Like Gold" Goldberg – additional vocal recording, mixing assistance
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
- Frank Olinsky – art direction and design
- John Craig – illustration
- Andrea Giacobbe – photograph
- Jeff Moleski – technical assistance
- Russ Spice – technical assistance
- Tim "Gooch" Lougee – technical assistance
- Adam Green – technical assistance
- Roger Carpenter – technical assistance
- Guitar Dave Mannet – technical assistance
[edit] References
- di Perna, Alan. "Zero Worship". Guitar World. December 1995.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e Kot, Greg. "Double Take: Smashing Pumpkins raises the stakes with 'Mellon Collie'". Chicago Tribune. October 22, 1995
- ^ a b c d e di Perna, Alan. "Zero Worship". Guitar World. December 1995.
- ^ a b Fricke, David (November 16, 1995). "Smashing Pumpkins". RollingStone.com. Retrieved on January 7, 2008.
- ^ DeRogatis, Jim. Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90's. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81271-1, p. 46, 80
- ^ a b c Corgan, Billy, James Iha & Jimmy Chamberlin. Interview. Smashing Pumpkins Rockumentary. MTV. 1995-10-17.
- ^ "No More Guitars." BigO Magazine, 1995.
- ^ Browne, David (October 27, 1995). "Pumpkin Batch". EW.com. Retrieved on May 11, 2008.
- ^ a b Kelly, Christina. "Smashing Pumpkins-The Multi-Platinum Band is over the infighting but can the harmony last?" US. December 1995.
- ^ Corgan, Billy, James Iha & D'arcy Wretzky. Interview. Hora Prima. MTV Latin America. 1996-12-19.
- ^ Corgan, Billy. "King B's". Guitar World. January 1997.
- ^ Evans, Liz. "The Last Word". Kerrang. May/June 1996.
- ^ Daher, Karl (May 29, 1998). Listessa Interviews Billy Corgan. Listessa. Retrieved on April 18, 2007.
- ^ "'Mellon Collie' Baby". EW.com (November 11, 1995). Retrieved on January 3, 2008.
- ^ Top 100 Albums. Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved on November 7, 2007. Sales for double albums are counted for each disc, thus 4.5 million copies of the double album package have been certified.
- ^ Farley, Christopher John. "A Journey, Not a Joyride". Time. November 13, 1995.
- ^ "The Best of 1995". Time.com (December 25, 1995). Retrieved on January 8, 2008.
- ^ Browne, David (October 27, 1995). "Pumpkin Batch" [Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness review]. EW.com. Retrieved on January 8, 2008.
- ^ DeRogatis, p. 80-82
- ^ Edmunds, Ben. "Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness". Mojo. December 1995.
- ^ Meredith, Amber. Chart. November 1995.
- ^ a b c The Smashing Pumpkins—Artist Chart History. Billboard.com. Retrieved on January 8, 2008.
- ^ a b Gold and Platinum Database Search. Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved on July 25, 2007.
- ^ Strauss, Neil (January 8, 1997). "Babyface, Celine Dion And Pumpkins Compete For Multiple Grammys". NYTimes.com. Retrieved on January 8, 2008.
- ^ The Smashing Pumpkins - Charts & Awards - Grammy Awards. Allmusic.com. Retrieved on January 8, 2008.
- ^ Christgau, Robert. "The 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". Village Voice. February 20, 1992. Retrieved on 10 November 2007.
- ^ "Title Unknown", Juice Magazine, August 1996 (available online).
- ^ Artist Chart History. Billboard. Retrieved on January 4, 2008.
- ^ Chartifacts - Week Commencing: 23 July 2007. ARIA.com. Retrieved on July 29, 2007.
- ^ Chartbitz: Wednesday, July 18 2007. RIANZ.com. Retrieved on July 18, 2007.
- ^ Cohen, Jonathan (January 21, 2005). Smashing Pumpkins To Reunite?. Billboard. Retrieved on October 5, 2007.
- ^ Mellon Collie & Infinite Sadness Certified Awards. British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved on October 5, 2007.
| Preceded by Daydream by Mariah Carey |
Billboard 200 number-one album November 11 - November 17, 1995 |
Succeeded by Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound |
| Preceded by Dangerous Minds (soundtrack) by Various artists |
Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album November 5 - November 18, 1995 |
Succeeded by Don't Ask by Tina Arena |
