THE SMASHING PUMPKINS Atum : A Rock Opera In Three Acts
( Martha ’ s Music )
There is apparently no such thing as a day off for Billy Corgan . Last year while The Smashing Pumpkins mounted their biggest concert tour since 1997 , Corgan simultaneously ran his wrestling league , the National Wrestling Alliance AND still found time to oversee Madame Zuzu ’ s , a unique old school tea house near his home in Highland Park . While it would be easy for the band to do celebratory anniversary tours of their classic 90s records , “ easy ” isn ’ t in the Corgan lexicon . In the era of seconds-long viral TikTok videos and ever-shortening attention spans , the singer / songwriter / svengali of The Smashing Pumpkins goes for the big gamble : a 33-song rock opera that revisits the same group of characters and themes introduced on concept albums Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness ( 1995 ) and Machina / The Machines Of God ( 2000 ). Savvy businessman as he always has been , the conventional release method wasn ’ t in the cards for Atum . Instead , the album would be released song by song over 33 weeks from 2022- 2023 , premiering a new song each week on his podcast Thirty- Three with William Patrick Corgan . Instead of a single release date , the slow drip release concept kept the album in the discussion for over half a year , which must have been the goal . Big , bold , and expensive sounding , the record careens from the Andrew Lloyd Webber-like show tune of “ The Butterfly Suite ” to the volcanic hard rock of “ The Good In Goodbye ” with ease . Variety has always been Corgan ’ s strong suit , at times offering some of the most delicate acoustic music of the grunge era while also out-rocking the competition by utilizing layered electric guitars and Jimmy Chamberlin ’ s once-in-a-generation drum prowess . Jimmy takes the spotlight on the 9-minute “ Intergalactic ,” where a sparse Moroder-esque synth line and JC ’ s tribal drum beat eventually dissolves into a killer spacedout percussion solo . Where the vocals of Billy Corgan have always been a point of many debates , he seems to have taken the Alex Chilton route , where his patented vocal fry has gotten higher and more nimble with age . “ Sojourner ” showcases Corgan ’ s oft-overlooked psychedelic side , where a string section slowly entangles itself with a hypnotic piano line deserving of the most dazzling light show . First single , “ Beguiled ” features a crunchy distorted guitar line over a loping beat that wouldn ’ t sound out of place in an Attitude Era late 90s wrestling promo . Where the storylines of Mellon Collie and Machina seemed vaguer , Atum presents the storyline in a clear
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