Seven years after dismantling his chart-topping alterna behemoth, Billy Corgan is back to remind
us that nothing much has changed—with him, or the world. He’s still lamenting over love, shattered
dreams and social inertia, but this time he seems more of a reporter than sage. So many of his dire predictions have come true, but he hasn’t reconstituted Smashing Pumpkins to crow (if you can call this a reconstitution, with only founding drummer Jimmy Chamberlain on board) but to continue down this same anxious road to remind fans that there is no time to dally. Beginning with the heavy handed mediation of “Doomsday Clock” to the almost ten-minute harangue of “United States” complete with Iggy Pop
chest-beating yelps, one gets the sense of time running out and choices being narrowed even on the sweet, yet pining rumination of “Never Lost.” Gone are the starkly confessional songs and fuzzy buzzy guitars from Zwan, the risky futuristic stuff he did on 2005’s Future Embrace, or even the delicate elegy of “For Martha” the song he wrote after his mother died. Corgan is at his very best when he allows his messy personal life to inflame his songs, and the only place he seems to do it is on “Tarantula” which is a frenzied updating of The Ramones’ “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight).” Instead he seems to want to be the voice of a generation—something that is nigh on impossible to do when you’ve just turned 40.
