The Smashing Pumpkins – Adore (1998)

I don't really own this album. I've bought it, but I don't really have it. I bought this album as a used CD from a Finnish record store's end sale and only later on I realised that they had given me another Smashing Pumpkins album in the album cover of Adore. So, I now own CD covers for Adore and a CD for Machina. I didn't want to buy this album again, so I just did the next best thing. I borrowed the CD from the library and burned a copy of Adore to put into the appropriate covers. This album has amazing covers, so I really should've bought this on vinyl, but I guess vinyl wasn't really the thing when this album came out. Adore is probably the most mellow of all the Smashing Pumpkins albums. There are quite a few ballads on this album and there are a few really long and artsy songs that differ from the band's usual quite heavy sound.



This album was introduced to me by my ex-girlfriend a lot later than the album's release year. I had only ever really listened to Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins and had not really paid attention to their other albums. I don't think I had ever eaten heard of Adore. To my surprise, this album was really melodic and it seemed to include the kinds of songs that I really liked on Mellon Collie. Later on, Adore has become one of my favourite Pumpkins album. Not that I really listen to them that often anymore though.

Billy Corgan is one of those singers whose voice you can recognise anywhere. I remember being confused when I first heard the band Zwan, because the music didn't sound like The Smashing Pumpkins, but the singer was clearly Billy Corgan.

This album came out a bit earlier than Swedish band Kent's hit album Vapen & Ammunition. It's funny how I'm actually making a link between these two albums, but I feel like Daphne Descents sounds a lot like Dom Andra. There are other similarities between these albums as well. Maybe it was just the sound of the time.Even the album covers have similar kind of black and white design, even though this album cover is way more gothic. But then again, so is the music. The music videos from the time show similar kinds of gothic aesthetics. The video for Ava Adore looks like it has been influenced by Addams Family.

My favourite song on the album would have to be the beautiful Crestfallen. This song really captures, in my opinion, what this album is all about. There are slight electronic elements on melodramatic melodies and Billy Corgan's nasal vocals. Blank Page is another great song and even Billy Corgan's vocals sound quite beautiful in that song.

One negative thing that I have to say about this album is that it is too long. 16 songs and they're not even particularly short songs. It's difficult to find time to fully concentrate on an album this long. I also feel like they could've made a much better album if they had left few of the weakest songs out of it.

I'm a bit bored in this type of music nowadays, but in its own genre, I think this album is very good. The Smashing Pumpkins are such a 90's thing that it sounds immediately out of date now, but as a historical album this shows what was great about 90's music when people were allowed to feel sad and miserable publicly.

Listen to the album on Spotify.