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.

Stellar

It does seem sort of silly for me to be so focused on Zeitgeist-era songs.

But those are the ones that are fresher in my mind, so I can't really help it.

Most people's problems (mine included) with Zeitgeist come from the fact that the album has roughly one type of song: the barnburner.  While there are a couple of songs that don't quite fit that (Neverlost being a nice ballad and Pomp & Circumstances being a piece of shit), the album breaks into your house with a boombox and a hammer and doesn't really leave.  

The worry was that Billy was trying to revive the Pumpkins that everyone remembered, and couldn't remember all the things that made the Pumpkins the great band they were.  He decided that people remembered them as a crushing rock band here to steal your children.

He'd be wrong if he thought that, but fortunately, he doesn't.

Stellar is the song that I feel captures the essence of the Pumpkins better than any other Zeitgeist-era song.  It's rock, but it's got feeling, too.  Most other songs on Zeitgeist feel bland and devoid of emotion, but Stellar manages to be powerful with guitars and sound, and also powerful with feeling.

I think that if all the bonus tracks for Zeitgeist (Death From Above, Stellar, and Zeitgeist) were included on the actual album (maybe remove Pomp & Circumstances for safety's sake), then Zeitgeist would be considered an album worthy to stand next to the old Pumpkins.

As a song by itself, Stellar is also great because it's a continuation of musical style for Billy.  It's like a mix of Pumpkins and FutureEmbrace-style rock.  That's why if it was on Zeitgeist it would have shown everyone that Billy's moving forward rather than searching for something behind him.  And it's still Pumpkins at the core, with sad lyrics about failed love and waning life.  And the guitar, too, seems old school, with Billy sounding like he's thinking about what James would play on it.  

Man, it would have been great if this song was written for the Old Pumpkins.  Hopefully it will grow into a new life with the New Pumpkins.  I hope they start playing it live soon. 

Zeitgeist

"Zeitgeist" the song has that funny distinction of being one of those songs that's a title track you can't find on the actual release (unless you count the Target version of the album).  Now for those who are afraid of crazy theories, skip to the end, because I'm about to use the song "Zeitgeist" as a platform to put forth my ideas about the album Zeitgeist (lol punctuation).

Zeitgeist is a concept album about, what else, the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the age.  The album as a whole is Billy Corgan's view of the world today.  A lot of people say that Zeitgeist is Billy Corgan trying to reconnect with the kids, trying to get with the times, and in a way, they're right.  

Billy Corgan is a very strange person, and every time he pipes up with his blogs or other rants about how much he hates Zwan, he distances himself from reality and everyone else around him who just feels awkward when Billy says how everyone in Zwan are horrible, immoral, grotesque people.  Apparently Billy realized this, and while it's still unclear if he's cleaning up his own act (ps, Billy, when you're trying to bring your band back together calling D'arcy a "mean spirited drug addict" won't help), he seems to be trying to get back some of the people he's alienated.  What better way to bring back the Pumpkins?

Now, I don't believe that the only reason Billy brought back SP is to make people love him again.  Nor do I believe that it only exists as a cash cow (I've already been proven wrong with my idea that as soon as Zeitgeist tanked he'd immediately break up the band).  I really do believe that Billy cares about SP, and that by digging up the name "smashing pumpkins," he's really bringing a part of himself back, clearly a part that he missed, and could tell other people missed.

Because I don't really want to have a Billy Pity Party, I'll move on.

Zeitgeist is drawing from many sources to create it's vision of right now.  As has been noted, it's the most (and probably first) politically motivated set of songs Billy's ever made, which is perfect for such a climate as now.  The problem is that Billy needs a little practice with his political anthems, and so most of them come off as a little awkward.  But at least he believes in what he's trying to say, which is evident from his delivery.  If he didn't really care and was only writing these songs to cash in on Bush-bashing, he'd have sung them in his "bored voice," that careless drab whine that drags out all the wrong syllables he'd use during some 2000 shows (1979 in particular. the lyric is not "nahnteen shyeven nyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.")  Instead Billy, on United States in particular, bring on his best wail in years.

A ton of people bash the album art of Zeitgeist, and probably with due reason.  When Shepard Fairey explained the concept, he did nothing more than reveal himself to be a total idiot and to throw egg in Billy's face.  That said, the rest of the album art is bizarre, but fits in to the theme of Zeitgeist. Everything is seen on TV screens, indicating our increasing obsession with television.  Paris Hilton even makes an appearance!  It's all an obvious plea to America to turn off and live a little, right? Hell, even the fact that the album comes in a billion different versions could be read as a critique of consumerism, right? Yeah? Yeah? America's fucked, yo.

Maybe.  The truth is, the message is sort of buried and comes off as making Billy look like an idiot that doesn't know anything about right now and is still stuck in 1994.  That isn't true though.  If anything, Billy is stuck in 2005.  Zeitgeist is a document of our culture two years ago.  So he missed his mark.  Oops.

Sadly, he missed his mark on an album that's incredibly important career-wise.  The fact that it's not important for anyone else makes it a little hard to warm up to.  But it's a nice try.

Now, the song "Zeitgeist."

The song to me seems like a real "end of the day" kind of song.  It's also a bit of a road song in the way that it's talking about a journey, but different in the way that the journey doesn't go anywhere.  It seems like Billy takes a long journey trying to find peace everyday, but he's alone and always finds himself in his empty house at the end of the day.  It's pretty sad, and may even be an admission that he doesn't really understand the world around him.  After all, he's "lost on the road," yeah?

It's funny that the song seems like sort of an anthem-song.  You could imagine everyone singing along to it.  A bajillion kids all proclaiming how lost and alone they are.  It's a funny image. 

The line "I hear there's a march, we should go" probably reveals the whole thing.  We may try to unite ourselves for our different causes, but we're all still alone and nothing really changes in the grand scheme of things.  It's a depressing thought, but maybe it's what Billy thinks really encapsulates our culture right now.  A need for personal connection that we've given up on but still acknowledge, while all the while we surround ourselves in ridiculous situations (Paris Hilton, yeah? Silly).  So maybe Billy Corgan's not too far off, just no one else is ready to listen to him.

That said, "Zeitgeist" could just be a little acoustic song he tossed out during the Zeitgeist sessions that sounded like it would do well as a B-side or bonus track. Such is life.  Me being me, though, I'm willing to give Billy the credit.