Bring The Light

Zeitgeist, as I've said, had way too much going against it.

Possibly chief among these was poor single choices.  Tarantula is an okay song, but it's just okay, and while lyrically it's appropriate for a "we're back again" single choice, musically it's boring and proves nothing.  I feel similarly about "That's the Way."  The fact that the videos for both these songs was utterly horrible certainly doesn't help, either.

There are two songs on the album that should have been singles (and they've both charted by themselves without label interaction in some countries!), "Doomsday Clock," and "Bring the Light." Doomsday Clock is probably the best album opener the Pumpkins ever had (hyperbole that I'll certainly disagree with later), and would have been an absolutely killer way to re-introduce fans to the band, and certainly would have wrangled in new fans, too (I mean, come on, they had the song in Transformers, how could it not have been a single!!?)

But Bring The Light is a great song to keep the momentum of the singles, and also show a different side to the band.  Bring the Light is still rocking, it's still pounding, driving, and intense, but more subtly that Doomsday.  And come on, it has the most searing harmonized solo I've heard in years, and all the cool kids these days are about that, right?  What a missed opportunity!

But I know, I know, albums aren't all about singles and making hella dollaz, they're about integrity and artform.  Well, I think Bring the Light is the prettiest song on Zeitgeist other than the obvious ballad, Neverlost (which is really similar to Blissed & Gone, so that doesn't count).  It's probably the most precisely structured song in the Pumpkins' catalogue, every A leads to B and C to D, but to me, it isn't a problem.  It's so smartly put together that it excites me.  Which I feel is what the song is all about.  It's about excitement, it's a rave-up, in a way.  Some criticism of the song is that it's nothing more than Billy repeating the title.  Well, why shouldn't he?  The song benefits from it, in my opinion.  And besides, he's not just repeating it the whole time, there are other lyrics, and they've got some great images in them "you'd spit upon my dust / and mix my ash / with your blood." 

When the band started playing the song live, it got longer and jammier, but not in an obtrusive way.  Every extension benefits the song very nicely:

So as it stands, Zeitgeist never got where it could have because Bring the Light wasn't a single. So there.

That may be unfair, but so was watching lasers come out of Billy's eyes.