Definitely is for me. I couldnāt get on with Mellon Collie either tbh (pretty much my end point for Smashing Pumpkins involvement) but this, for me at least, is a totally different ball game. I know that theyāre sometimes a bit of a running joke on here, but around this time (Siamese Dream and Pisces Iscariot era) they were so, so good.
Reckon Iām going for a strong 9. Not one of my absolute all time favourites and donāt listen to it that much these days, but the best tracks from this and PI are pretty much as good as 90s indie / alternative rock gets.
An easy 10. I think @Bamnan nailed it: thereās something unique about the sound of this album that made them stand out at the time and has not been replicated since.
Yeah everyone i know personally consider this their best a long way. Chollie is too bloated and full of pomp en circumstances that never sat right with me
An unashamed 10. Peak Pumpkins - though I might reach for Mellon Collie more often for its sheer breadth, Siamese Dream is their essence distilled; a fuzzed out, wall of sound eruption of youthful joy before the cynicism and drugs took their toll. A lot is made of Corganās control-freak tendencies, and while much is true (rerecording almost everyoneās parts himself, for example), he still knew when someone else could do something he couldnāt - the intro to Mayonaise, for example - a solo only James Iha could come up with, and still one of the most beautiful things ever to come out of Alternative Rock, let alone the Pumpkinsā ouvre.
That little melodic drop at 1minute in hummer is really beautiful, thatās what I think they did best just these little melodic trills that feelā¦wellā¦melancholicā¦not about virtuosity but a presence of mind in the music to include moments like that. You could see many bands making similarly structured songs without little embellished moments which are all over this album and give it its flavour.
Find it hard enough to believe that there are people who like music who donāt love this album, but the fact that there are Pumpkins fans who think thereās even a bum note on this album, let alone a boring track, has me utterly perplexed.
Was able to pick Geek USA as best track only because the choice is so arbitrary (every single sixteenth note across the entire album being both essential and perfectly placed).
Really? The main thing I dislike about Siamese Dream is that it still sounds way too metal. Theyāve obviously reined it in a lot from Gish and some of the guitar effects are really cool but then Quiet suddenly goes into this ludicrous cock-rock solo and ruins everything.
There are a few excellent tracks on here - Today, Disarm and Spaceboy - but almost every song is twice as long as it needs to be for no real reason. For me Melon Collie is so much better than Siamese Dream but I can see that it was a necessary step on the way there. 6/10