Monuments To An Elegy
| The Smashing Pumpkins
Monuments To An Elegy
Monuments to an Elegy is the ninth studio album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released on December 5, 2014. Band leader Billy Corgan has noted that—similar to the band's previous release, Oceania—the album was the final part of the project, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, due to cancellation of the project in 2018 by Corgan.The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, but sold poorly compared to the band's previous albums, peaking at number 33 in the U.S. and number 59 in the U.K., thus making it (at the time) their lowest charting album in both regions since their debut, Gish (1991).-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Monuments to an Elegy, Smashing Pumpkins’ ninth studio album and the second in the band's Teargarden by Kaleidyscope cycle, is Billy Corgan’s first savvy artistic move in nearly 15 years: a Smashing Pumpkins album that has no precedent in his catalog.
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All Music
Monuments to an Elegy feels like a Corgan solo project and not just because this percolates with analog synthesizers straight out of The Future Embrace. Monuments stitches together all of Corgan's obsessions -- thick sheets of guitars, 4AD space rock, delicate acoustica, Commodore 64 synthesizers, a fondness for both noise and beauty -- but there is an ease to the album that not only feels self-reflective but also rather mature.
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The Guardian
Monuments to An Elegy returns to the trademark Pumpkins sound. Lashings of alt-rock guitars and subtle classic rock references abound, although there are lovely tinkly keyboards on Tiberius and Being Beige chugs along on a drum machine. The standout Dorian turns up the synthesisers with a melody distantly related to the classic 1979. If the songs don’t all match the Pumpkins’ early glories, Corgan is still carrying what he once called “the infinite sadness”, investing uplifting sounds with an undercurrent of melancholy. As he puts it in the particularly affecting Drum + Fife: “I will bang this drum ’til my dying day.”
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Sputnik Music
It's uncomfortable to admit, but Corgan may finally be in the right about his tight grip over The Smashing Pumpkins. At once aided by every accessible trait the band have explored, Monuments to an Elegy is a rewarding construct for Generation Z. As much as it comes down to three-and-a-half-minute love songs dictated by vacuous titles, this is still very much a continuation of the nostalgic Pumpkins sound that made Oceania so wonderful. Likable and easy, ...Elegy finds solace as the most comfortable album Corgan has produced yet.
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COS
What’s difficult about Monuments is that the album doesn’t exactly push the Pumpkins forward. There isn’t anything here that you haven’t heard previously on Oceania (“Run2Me”), either Machina LP (“Dorian”), or Adore (“Being Beige”). That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, considering we know what happens when Corgan feels the need to push himself creatively (see: TheFutureEmbrace). Instead, look at the album as an expansion on the songwriter’s strengths. At 47 years old, Corgan can still write an excellent song. The fact that we continue listening is a testament to this monumental power.
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Paste
Monuments stands as the Pumpkins’ biggest sonic outlier. There are no gnarly solos. The SP roar has been toned down to make space for shimmering synthesizers. While longtime fans will still feel at home with Corgan’s snarl and majestic guitars—especially on opener “Tiberius”—Monuments will be remembered for its pop-focused (but not colder) take on the classic Pumpkins sound. Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee makes a case as the best successor to the irreplaceable Chamberlin. Most importantly, there seems to be a new creative fire under Billy Corgan’s ass, which he’s partially credited to guitarist Jeff Schroeder’s expanding role within the band.
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Smells Like Infinite Sadness
Monuments to an Elegy: it’s an album full of catchy tunes, and some of his more accomplished vocals. It doesn’t match his 90’s heyday, as it lacks his mad scientist experimentation and his bratty wail. But it feels like a step forward, and makes a place for the band (Corgan) in the 21st century.
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Rolling Stone
Monuments to an Elegy – the latest installment in his band's multi-album cycle Teargarden by Kaleidyscope – is a surprise. Corgan's characteristically acidic vocals make sure that songs like the New Wave-y "Dorian," the Killers-ish "Run2Me" and the cloying "Anti-Hero" are as much Pumpkins as they are pop. And the record's sole grunge grinder, "One and All (We Are)," sounds hopeful without losing its bite.
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The National
There’s much to enjoy in these nine short tracks but, sorry Billy, Monuments to an Elegy remains a minor work, lacking a fraction of the depth or invention that has kept listeners going back to the Pumpkins’ heyday work.
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The Quietus
Again Corgan paints the chorus large, and it really is a doozy. The hooks come thick and fast throughout the album, partly you suspect because its author wants to remind us he's been capable of them all along- that his various sonic misadventures in discord and lengthy prog have been creative choices.
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KEXP
Monuments is 100% Teargarden Pumpkins - no throw back tease necessary for this LP to rock your socks off. Heading into 2015, Billy Corgan doesn't seem to be slowing down for anyone, but before he jumps on another project, you should take the time to let Monuments to an Elegy settle on your brain - it's a brief but beautifully crafted effort from a master songwriter that should not be ignored in these last couple weeks of the year.
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Blog Critics
At just under 33 minutes, MTAE is the most concise studio album of Billy Corgan’s career – no epic prog rockers like the title track to Oceania this time around. It is in essence a loud, guitar-based record of potent love/lover-themed songs with synth pop elements throughout. It is similar to Oceania in that respect, though the synths here are a bit more retro-sounding here.
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The Firenote
Coming it at 32.5 minutes, Elegy is a modest monument, when you think back to the double album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, just 9 tracks and all but one song running less than four minutes. But the use of the word “elegy” is practically a misnomer, as the lyrical tone here is some of Corgan’s most positive, if somewhat goofy as per usual. If anything stands out as a lament over someone’s death (because words have meanings), it’s “Drum + Fife,” where the protagonist insists “I will bang this drum till my dying day.” As for “Monuments,” the closest thing to a title track, the key vocal hooks state, “Lover, you’re strange” and “I feel all right tonight, all right, all right.” Well, all righty then.
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Ultimate-Guitar
For the most part it's nicely mixed, mastered and produced.
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KEXP
Monuments is 100% Teargarden Pumpkins - no throw back tease necessary for this LP to rock your socks off. Heading into 2015, Billy Corgan doesn't seem to be slowing down for anyone, but before he jumps on another project, you should take the time to let Monuments to an Elegy settle on your brain - it's a brief but beautifully crafted effort from a master songwriter that should not be ignored in these last couple weeks of the year.
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Blog Critics
At just under 33 minutes, MTAE is the most concise studio album of Billy Corgan’s career – no epic prog rockers like the title track to Oceania this time around. It is in essence a loud, guitar-based record of potent love/lover-themed songs with synth pop elements throughout. It is similar to Oceania in that respect, though the synths here are a bit more retro-sounding here.
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The Firenote
Coming it at 32.5 minutes, Elegy is a modest monument, when you think back to the double album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, just 9 tracks and all but one song running less than four minutes. But the use of the word “elegy” is practically a misnomer, as the lyrical tone here is some of Corgan’s most positive, if somewhat goofy as per usual. If anything stands out as a lament over someone’s death (because words have meanings), it’s “Drum + Fife,” where the protagonist insists “I will bang this drum till my dying day.” As for “Monuments,” the closest thing to a title track, the key vocal hooks state, “Lover, you’re strange” and “I feel all right tonight, all right, all right.” Well, all righty then.
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Seattle Pi
Monuments to an Elegy is the most enjoyable Smashing Pumpkins record from start to finish in years. Oceania was terrific on the whole as well (and universally hailed as better than the 2007 comeback album Zeitgeist), but there were times you still wanted to skip around to your favorite tracks. In an era where the attention span among music listeners is seemingly getting shorter and shorter, Billy Corgan has smartly come up with nine mostly strong and relatively short, compact cuts (all but one under four minutes). This is an album for longtime loyalists, (newer) Oceania fans, and perhaps even some of those fair weather fans stuck in the '90s, mindlessly wishing for the original lineup to reform. Time will tell.
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Clash
I guess, as it comes in at just nine tracks and 30-and-a-bit minutes long, it’s impossible to really feel any significant sourness towards ‘Monuments...’, as it doesn’t hang around long enough for any real emotions to stir. It’s the ninth studio album to bear the Pumpkins brand, and probably the seventh that wouldn’t find a single track making most fans’ side-of-a-C90 best-of. But it delivers what it promises: songs by Billy Corgan that sound enough like the ones you recall loving as a teenager, when the band name meant something and you could name all the members, for you to not hate them. Which is enough.
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Drowned In Sound
It’s certainly the best Pumpkins album since Corgan started making work under that name again: lovestruck, melodic, tuneful and confident, it starts with the perfectly executed candy coloured explosion of ‘Tiberius’ and barely puts a foot wrong across its running time.
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Musicfeeds
The excellent Monuments lights a fire with its incendiary guitar work, only for Dorian‘s meandering to douse the flames. The heat returns with Anti-Hero, which serves as the album’s most punk-rock, anarchic moment. A barnstormer by Pumpkins standards, its buzzsaw guitars, frantic drumming and passionate vocal delivery make for the perfect choice of closer.
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John Markham
Monuments to an Elegy is a hit-and-miss album. While not being anywhere near The Smashing Pumpkins best efforts (old line-up or new ones), it does contain the excellent tracks ‘Being Beige’ and ‘Drum + Fife’, two highlights that overshadow the majority of the rest of the tracks on the album, which mainly contain plenty of synthesizers, drum machines, big riffs and Corgan’s instantly recognizable voice.
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Oceanview Press
Now and then, the drums sound a bit intrusive, yet, Lee’s drumming sounds more controlled and less erratic, as is expected on many Crüe songs. Production-wise, it’s also not as slick as Oceania, but more muddy in places. This, however, is not a criticism. Your personal preference will be the judge. Of course this album, for reasons only known to Corgan, was recorded at breakneck speed, so a few songs sound more like polished up demos as opposed to fully realized songs, such as “One and All (We Are)” and “Tiberius.” With all that said, I give highly favorable props to the new effort. As mentioned before, The Pumpkins have never been afraid to take chances, and songs such as “Anaise”, “Monuments” and “Dorian” are a testament to that fact.
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Dumb Music Talk
Those who are holding out for another Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness aren’t likely to enjoy Monuments to an Elegy. Those who enjoy the band’s more recent work like Oceania and Teargarden by Kaleidyscope will probably find a lot to enjoy here. As for me? As much as I enjoy the band’s early work, I’m glad Corgan isn’t trying to replicate it here. When he’s tried in the past it’s resulted in some of his worst work. With Oceania, Corgan moved past his old material. With Monuments to an Elegy he’s continuing down that path and not looking back. And his work is all the better for it.
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Ultimate Guitar
Overall, this is a very solid effort, surpassing anything Corgan has done since "Machina," including Zwan and a solo effort. As soon as I finished listing to it I wanted to hear it again. Rating:
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Empty Lighthouse
The album's closer's palm-muted power chord riffs are so bland, predictable and Guitar Center-y that it's hard to imagine a known perfectionist like Corgan allowing them to make the final cut.
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Buquad
“Monuments to an Elegy” is better than “Oceania.” It’s easily the best thing Corgan has put out since “Adore.” It sounds like nothing the band has ever done before: airy, light and dominated by Cars-esque synths. I suppose this shouldn’t be too surprising, given that this is the band that once covered The Cars’ “You’re All “I’ve Got Tonight,” but it’s pretty great to hear the band commit to a full album of stuff like this. Opener “Tiberius,” one of the best songs the Pumpkins have recorded in forever, sets the tone with its cascade of hooky synths. And the album never really lets up after that.
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I Heart Guitar
The band created what it did in the 90s by following its artistic muse, and it caught on. Now Corgan wants to continue to create and push the boundaries, and will probably never be at peace with the notion of nostalgia. Nor should he be. It’s that same drive that made the music popular in the first place. In an alternate universe there’s probably a Smashing Pumpkins who alternate between artistically-fulfilling smaller tours in smaller venues where they explore experimentation and extrapolation, and arena tours playing the hits with old members to satisfy those who want that, and to maybe swell the coffers a little to pour into the next new, creative project.
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Get Rocked
The second entry of the “Teargarden By Kaleidyscope” album trilogy, Billy Corgan continues with guest musicians and many different directions.
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SMH
If we forget that Monuments To An Elegy is, apparently, part two of another multi-album saga, the ninth Smashing Pumpkins LP comes armed with a rare quality for any Billy Corgan endeavour: brevity. It's a mere nine songs and 32 minutes, with only the '80s-movie-soundtrack-ish power-ballad Run2Me breaking four minutes. It makes for a businesslike take on Corgan's studio-excess; all his endless multi-tracked guitars and tragic-romantic angst kept on a short leash. With Tommy Lee on drums, the set dodges the syrupy synth-pop and string-swept balladry of Corgan at his best, and instead arena-rocks with an effortful economy.
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Newsday
Corgan also expands his musical landscape on "Monuments." The shimmering, synth-driven dance anthem "Run2Me" reflects both Corgan's stint in New Order and the current generation of new-new-wavers like The Killers and Neon Trees. "Monuments to an Elegy" has the power to return them to that status.
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Real Gone Rocks
With just nine tracks clocking in at thirty two minutes, if approached as a stand-alone work, 'Monument To An Elegy' is brilliantly tight and succinct listen.
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Blank GC
Monuments to an Elegy marks Billy Corgan’s return to 90s styled rock, and yes, let’s be honest here, Billy Corgan IS Smashing Pumpkins, no-one else gets creative input in the band. Album number nine sounds like the 90s iconic alt-grunge-rock sound without the grunge and is ready for your aural pleasure in the form of tracks like Tiberius, Monuments and One and All. Dorian feels like a track that fell off the back of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and that is not a bad thing.
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Questia
Despite the ponderous title, the Smashing Pumpkins' ninth studio album, "Monuments to an Elegy" (Martha's Music), is practically lighthearted by Billy Corgan standards. Corgan hasn't gone all One Direction on us, but it's by far his most concise, pop-oriented album as the sole remaining original member of a band that sold multimillions of albums during its '90s heyday.
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Daily Journal
For most of his "monuments," Corgan revisits his wide-ranging past with help from Motley Crue's Tommy Lee on drums. "Dorian" recasts the poppiness of "1979" in a darker setting, without losing its catchiness. "Anti-Hero" alternates between the grinding guitar of the era and a catchy chorus that would fit well on "Siamese Dream."
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ABC News
“Monuments To An Elegy” disappoints more than it pleases. At 9 songs and a slim 32 minutes, it comes off as remarkably slight.
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Duluth News Tribune
It’s been clear for some time that Billy Corgan is Billy Corgan’s worst enemy, and this album is just more proof of that to toss on the pile. Maybe in some alternate dimension, Corgan is still making towering, pulverizing, anthemic wall-of-rock music with poetic lyrics. Maybe there, he’s a humble, self-effacing person who is able to recognize that, at his age, he’s not going to have big hits, and so he’s just trying to blow the minds of his loyal fans. But here, he’s a guy who thinks that a handful of singsong melodies and lyrics like “love me, baby / love me true” are anything but insipid.
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The Lantern
It’s their shortest album, clocking in at 33 minutes, but it’s full of unusual, tight and almost uniformly catchy pop-rock songs. Corgan and co. accomplish what other veteran acts like U2 and the Foo Fighters also were successfully able to do in their albums this year — reinvent their sound while keeping the parts of it that they are known and loved for.
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The New York Times
The Smashing Pumpkins were performing to support a newly released album, “Monuments to an Elegy” (Martha’s Music/BMG), a collection of short, blunt, single-minded songs.
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Under The Gun Review
In addition to putting out a new album with Mötley Crüe’s drummer, the Smashing Pumpkins are reissuing their 1998 LP Adore this year to the happy applause of thousands of fans. The release will come with a bunch of bonus material.
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Inquisitr
On top of the alternative rock world in the 90s and early 2000s, the Pumpkins’ last few offerings have been somewhat underwhelming. The new single off their December release, Moments to an Elegy, while sonically pleasing, doesn’t have the punch of early hits according to reviews.
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Chicago Sun Times
Overall, this slim album, clocking in at just over 30 minutes, reflects Corgan in a more lighthearted mood. New Order and Roxy Music are touchstones, especially on the sweeping synth-guitars of “Dorian” and the twinkling dance-pop of “Anaise.” Lyrically these songs don’t raise the bar, but the melodies matter more. One of the pleasures here how compact these songs are: Despite his reputation for sprawling musical ideas, Corgan is still a skilled craftsman who can pack a three-minute song with gravity.
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The Scotsman
Given such ambition, the new record is a significant achievement considering that Corgan has spent the last couple of years wrestling with the band’s personnel issues. With the group having shed members almost as rapidly as Mark E Smith’s Fall, reports suggest that guitarist Jeff Schroeder was the only full-time member to have played here, with former Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee drafted in to assist. As such, these nine tracks sound similar to Smashing Pumpkins of days gone by, but their satisfyingly melodramatic bombast has now been stretched paper thin.
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DIY
Monuments To An Elegy is certainly the easiest Pumpkins record to listen to since their original reformation in 2008. It acts as something of a midpoint in sound between 'Siamese Dream' and 2003's Zwan album, 'Mary Star Of The Sea'. This brevity helps to make it such an effortless listen.
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Louder Sound
With Dorian taking on a doomier electro-pop tone and this sparkling half hour coming to an end with the new-wave teen romance of Anti-Hero – ‘never been kissed by a girl like you!’ Corgan bellows with his best Tom Petty hat on – Smashing Pumpkins have never brimmed so full of youthful exuberance, or lunged so adroitly for the feel-good jugular.
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Ppcorn
It’s not a bad album, and it’s quite possible that someone coming to the Pumpkins for the first time would see nothing wrong with it. But, then again, I think if this was a new band, I’d still recognize it’s overall unevenness.
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Stereogum
Throughout, though, Monuments simply revels in electric, addictive sound. This is the synthiest Corgan album since TheFutureEmbrace, and the synthiest Pumpkins album since Adore, but where those albums plumbed the goth-y, post-punk darkness of New Order and Depeche Mode, Monuments deals in the brighter side of New Wave: the Cars, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual. It’s not absent guitars, though — it just balances the two instruments. And that may seem like a fairly simple balance to achieve, but Corgan’s history to this point has suggested an inability to satisfyingly find it. But here? Here he zoned in on it with near-perfect precision.
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Overblown
Monuments to an Elegy is a resounding disappointment. Corgan has become the one thing that had always seemed impossible: boring. It is, however, mercilessly short.
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Rock Sound
Billy Corgan is back with a vengeance. Inviting Mötley Crüe sticksman Tommy Lee along for the ride, The Smashing Pumpkins’ mastermind returns to heavier climes, delivering a typically atmospheric ninth album. At times, this album evokes the halcyon days of ‘Siamese Dream’, pursuing a familiar fusion of hazy melody and squalls of guitar. ‘Tiberius’, ‘One And All’ and ‘Anti-Hero’ will come as a treat to long-time admirers, and while not everything works – ‘Dorian’ goes nowhere in particular and the assorted amateurish synths on show grate on the nerves and feel like an afterthought – this is rarely less than compelling.
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Blabbermouth
"Monuments To An Elegy" is the ninth SMASHING PUMPKINS studio effort. The disc features Corgan, guitarist Jeff Schroeder — the only other current "permanent" member of the PUMPKINS — and MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee, who played on all nine of the set's songs.
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Chitobakamo
The latest offering of the rock band Smashing Pumpkins returns with a new album, Monuments To An Elegy. It was said that it was part of like a series of album. I should say that this is not a sound that I’m expecting from Smashing Pumpkins cause i loved them in Ave Adore. Well, the two original members are gone but still producing great music. This is the most easy sounding and mellow i heard this band. A beautiful guitar for Being Beige brings full soul to the song. Drum + Fife also features amazing play of guitar showcases just a sweet rock track that i like. Monuments gives that rock vibe that i loved before but not that close. Anti-Hero plays beautiful electric guitar. Its really a toned down tune for the band and i think fans will not like it that much.
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Music OMH
Monuments To An Elegy does have a certain level of continuity about it though. For a start, guitarist Jeff Schroeder remains in his post, whilst Howard Willing returns as producer (having worked with the band on Adore and Machina/The Machines Of God). This album also continues the cycle of the Teargarden By Kaleidyscope concept, and it will be followed next year by Day For Night. So a little of the past that clings to the Pumpkins this time around.
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The Top Tens
This album goes back to the same sound of the Pumpkins hay day and is a progression from where Oceania left off.
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NME
‘Monuments To An Elegy’ is essentially a Corgan solo record which shows flashes of his old power, while also straying into some seriously dodgy attempts to update the Pumpkins sound for 2014. ‘Tiberius’ is a promising start, employing a Pixies-esque loud-quiet-loud dynamic and sounding fittingly imperious for a song named after a Roman emperor. ‘Being Beige’, where Corgan rails against modern, selfie-obsessed narcissism, is the album’s strongest moment, casting the 47-year-old on familiar territory as the erudite outsider, always his greatest strength. ‘Anaise!’ catches Corgan at his most romantic, while closer ‘Anti-Hero’ is the album’s most raucous, most punk moment.
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Minds Equals Blown
The album is characterized by layers of guitars and synth, alongside Corgan’s vocals, that create sounds of monumentally epic proportions. The drums were done by Tommy Lee, of Motley Crue, and add to the strong alternative rock tone of the album. “Being Beige” is a notable return to a sound found on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It is brooding and dark yet flecked with enough subtle pop rock influences that it becomes remarkably catchy and you’re left humming the tune and singing the chorus for hours afterwards. “Run2Me” takes a dive into the realms of ’80s synth-pop fused with modern electronic elements, and a thick layer of brooding guitar riffs.
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American Songwriter
But on the tiresomely titled Monuments to an Elegy, Corgan tightens up his tunes, keeps his wandering lyrics in check and loosens his overall approach with impressive results. Only one of the nine songs breaks the four minute barrier with the whole album clocking in at just over a half hour.
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Now Toronto
For every pure rock song, like One And All (We Are), with its heavy-hitting cyclical guitar melodies and that classic Corgan snarl, there’s a glistening pop number rife with plush drums, synthesizers and starry-eyed lyrics. (Case in point: “Run to me, my special one,” on Run2Me.) But while some songs veer too far into slick pop territory, most are balanced, like opener Tiberius, a high-stakes emotional odyssey with a chorus you can sing along to.
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Qobuz
As he set to work on Monuments to an Elegy, the second "album within an album" within the larger Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, Billy Corgan slowly whittled down Smashing Pumpkins to himself and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. This narrowing of the group -- the duo is supported by the hired hand of Mötley Crüe's drummer Tommy Lee -- ultimately doesn't matter much because ever since the Pumpkins' 2007 comeback, the secret of Corgan's complete control of the group was out in the open.
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Boston Globe
Pause for a moment to appreciate the fact that the title of “Monuments to an Elegy” is built around two words that both refer to commemorations of something once great that has died. Smashing Pumpkins long ago ceased to be the band that it will be forever remembered as — something cruelly underlined by Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee manning the drum chair with a fraction of the subtlety and momentum formerly provided by Jimmy Chamberlin. Billy Corgan’s musical gifts, much like his monomaniacal-perfectionist reputation, have soured over the years, and these songs are failed epics in miniature.
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JB HI-FI
Monuments To An Elegy' is "an album within an album," part of the Pumpkin's fascinating work in progress cycle of studio albums.
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RadioX
Monuments To An Elegy is chronologically the ninth studio album by Billy Corgan's alt.rock legends, Smashing Pumpkins. A brisk 33 minutes in length, the album features a sterling guest appearance on drums by Motley Crue's Tommy Lee.
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Record Collector
Of the band’s original line-up, only Billy Corgan and his ambition remain. Monuments To An Elegy (let’s take a moment to soak up the preposterous pomposity of that title) is a record within a record: the penultimate phase of Corgan’s Teargarden By Kaleidoscope album cycle, a project started in 2009 after the final departure of original drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, and which comprises 44 songs loosely based on the Tarot. Against all odds (and with Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee behind the kit) the music actually stands up: the sinister slow burn of Drum + Fife is majestic and startling, while the abrasive riffs of closer Anti-Hero carry the same clout as the band’s mid-90s quasi-grunge. Regardless of the pretentious set-up, this is another fine record.
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Dumb Music Talk
Following some major changes, The Smashing Pumpkins are back with their 9th studio album, Monuments to an Elegy. This album sees the departure of bassist Nicole Fiorentino and drummer Mike Byrne, with Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee behind the kit. But with frontman Billy Corgan being the only original member left, it’s clear that line-up changes have never stopped him before.
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Oldies
The breadth impresses and it resonates stronger because he's funneled all these sounds and textures into a tight nine-song album that lasts barely over a half-hour. For an artist who has fervently believed more is indeed more, this restraint is thoroughly appealing and helps showcase his craft in surprising -- and, yes, sometimes dazzling -- ways.
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God Is In The TV
Nine albums in and The Smashing Pumpkins now consist of singer/songwriter Billy Corgan aided by a rotating cast of studio hands. Many reviewers have noted the brevity of all the tracks: all but one are just under four minutes long and the other just over four. But for me this stymies the material from progressing further than its rather pedestrian beginnings and blossom into something truly epic that the Pumpkins of yore were clearly capable of.
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Umusic
Monuments to an Elegy marks the iconic alternative band’s eighth studio album and is the follow-up to their 2012 critically acclaimed album Oceania. The new album was recorded in Chicago with Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who’s been in the band since 2007. Playing drums throughout is Tommy Lee. The album was produced by Howard Willing (who first worked with the Pumpkins on the Adore sessions), Corgan and Schroeder. It was mixed by David Bottrill and mastered by Howie Weinberg, who did the same honours for Pumpkins classics in the '90s. Monuments to an Elegy is ‘an album within an album,’ part of their ongoing work-in-progress Teargarden By Kaleidyscope (with Day For Night as the project’s last work).
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Norman Records
Now that Billy Corgan is done composing and performing eight-hour tributes to Herman Hesse novels -- and making Oneohtrix Point Never laugh in the process -- he's decided to return to that little side project of his, also known as the Smashing Pumpkins. Monuments To An Elegy is their eighth record and hold the indie rock: we want it as pretentious as we know you can make it, Billy.
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Beat
Unfortunately, a large majority of the tracks on the album are fairly repetitive and easily forgotten. Corgan’s lyrics are far less poetic these days and generally just feature a couple of main lines sung on repeat.
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Acoustic Sounds
Monuments to an Elegy is a stunning return to form, writes Alternative Press. It offers concise songs that plumb the vocalist/guitarist's stock-in-trade while offering new sonic veneers. Monuments to an Elegy was recorded in Chicago with Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who's been in the band since 2007. Playing drums throughout is Tommy Lee.
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Rock On Philly
The best moments on the album come from Corgan’s experience in songwriting, creating songs that are well-rounded and emotionally complex.
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Music Brainz
Monuments to an Elegy is the ninth studio album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released on December 5, 2014. Band leader Billy Corgan has noted that—similar to the band's previous release, Oceania—the album was the final part of the project, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, due to cancellation of the project in 2018 by Corgan. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, but sold poorly compared to the band's previous albums.
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Contact Music
The Smashing Pumpkins will be releasing their eighth album 'Monuments To An Elegy'; the first of two albums within the space of the year, and the second instalment of their 'Teargarden by Kaleidyscope' album trilogy project.
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Rock and Roll Guru
Monuments to an Elegy is "an album within an album," part of their ongoing work-in-progress Teargarden By Kaleidyscope (with next year's Day For Night as the project's last work).
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Kpop Starz
The new album "Monuments To An Elegy" received a three star rating from The Guardian but that didn't stop Corgan to think twice about his recent release. He claimed that the band's former albums that were considered classics today were also rated with three stars and that doesn't stop him from creating a music that he used to live for.
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Flood
Indeed, the intensely titled Monuments to an Elegy (Corgan was never one for middling gestures) tries hard to be as grand as it is dripping with elegiac introspection—aided only by earthlings Jeff Schroeder on guitar and Tommy Lee on drums—but cannot seem to hit the mark.
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Loudwire
Billy Corgan and his Smashing Pumpkins cohorts are moving right along in their task of completing two new albums. Corgan has just chimed in at the band's website to reveal that the first release, 'Monuments for an Elegy,' which features Motley Crue's Tommy Lee on drums, is for the most part complete.
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