Zeitgeist
| The Smashing Pumpkins
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is the seventh studio album by American rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released on July 10, 2007 by Martha's Music and Reprise Records. It was the band's first album following their reunion in 2005, and was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Terry Date. The album debuted strongly, but sales soon decreased, and critical reception was mixed. It was certified Gold in the United States on February 1, 2008.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
A comeback of sorts, the only actual reunion taking place here is between Billy Corgan and his most famous brand; drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was already involved in both of Corgan's post-Pumpkins projects, and James Iha/D'Arcy preferred to stay in hiding.
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All Music
The ensuing 2007 album Zeitgeist does nothing to erase the suspicion that Corgan is anxious to regain his status as rock & roll god. To this end, he makes Zeitgeist the hardest, heaviest Pumpkins album ever, layering the record with endless guitar overdubs that wind up feeling like overcompensation, not just for the synth-driven Future Embrace but as a blustering retort to any skeptic who questions the validity of this reunion. Rating:
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Tiny Mixtapes
The mixing problems extend far beyond Corgan’s voice. The Band of a Hundred Murderous Guitars has turned into a modern-radio-rock band. The once fill-a-minute drumming of Chamberlin is uninspired where it used to be wildly imaginative. The lunging charge of classic Pumpkins is now a plodding mid-tempo stroll. Such a tragedy; Zeitgeist, unlike, say, a new Pixies, Police, NY Dolls, Stooges, or Jesus and Mary Chain album, actually had the chance to rekindle old glories. The Pumpkins faithful aren’t really that old, nor is Corgan too far gone – thin ice, but stay with me here – to contribute something worthwhile to the music community. But Zeitgeist is more calculated, by-the-numbers, and devoid of human feeling than a summer-movie marketing plan.
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Sputnik Music
Billy Corgan remains a talented and fascinating figure in popular music and has managed to make a good album from the torn and frayed pages of his past. And while not enough to stand among the best the Pumpkins have to offer, Zeigeist nonetheless stands fairly well on it's own, Smashing Pumpkins or no. Not bad for picking up the pieces and gluing them back together.
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Slant
While the Smashing Pumpkins’ first new album in seven years, Zeitgeist, addresses the political and social upheaval that has occurred in the world since 2000’s MACHINA: The Machines Of God, Billy Corgan and his band haven’t really captured the spirit of the time since the apex of grunge rock. Zeitgeist is the Pumpkins’ most aggressively metal album to date. But heaps of guitars, vocal overdubs, and ridiculous effects don’t mask a lack of inventiveness or even plain ol’ quality songwriting.
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BBC
At least the music pummels away with no mercy, like a rabid boxer or an annoying child next to you on the bus. ‘'Doomsday Clock'’ kicks off the record and it is fiercely, brilliantly intense rock, the like of which even the Pumpkins themselves haven’t really managed since '‘Quiet'’ booted the hell out of their breakout album, Siamese Dream.
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Blabbermouth
"Zeitgeist" seems like an album that's divided between the commercial expectations of what people want a SMASHING PUMPKINS record to sound like and where the band's guiding creative light wants to go with his own music. When he embraces that fully, Corgan is at his best, but the results could disappoint fans that love the crunchy, metal-based alternative rock on which the PUMPKINS first made their reputation. The result is a schizophrenic album that is neither a glorious return to form nor a bold reinvention of a beloved band.
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Common Sense Media
Zeitgeist definitely brings the signature Pumpkins sound, with impressive guitar riffs, drumming like there's no tomorrow, and Billy Corgan's distinctive whine -- dripping with angst. Its tracks move easily between ominous messages about the state of the world and more plaintive, melancholy musings on love. While Zeitgeist is no Siamese Dream or Gish, it's a solid album that was worth the wait, and unlikely to disappoint Smashing Pumpkins fans.
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All Music
The ensuing 2007 album Zeitgeist does nothing to erase the suspicion that Corgan is anxious to regain his status as rock & roll god. To this end, he makes Zeitgeist the hardest, heaviest Pumpkins album ever, layering the record with endless guitar overdubs that wind up feeling like overcompensation, not just for the synth-driven Future Embrace but as a blustering retort to any skeptic who questions the validity of this reunion.
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Tiny Mixtapes
The mixing problems extend far beyond Corgan’s voice. The Band of a Hundred Murderous Guitars has turned into a modern-radio-rock band. The once fill-a-minute drumming of Chamberlin is uninspired where it used to be wildly imaginative. The lunging charge of classic Pumpkins is now a plodding mid-tempo stroll. Such a tragedy; Zeitgeist, unlike, say, a new Pixies, Police, NY Dolls, Stooges, or Jesus and Mary Chain album, actually had the chance to rekindle old glories. The Pumpkins faithful aren’t really that old, nor is Corgan too far gone – thin ice, but stay with me here – to contribute something worthwhile to the music community. But Zeitgeist is more calculated, by-the-numbers, and devoid of human feeling than a summer-movie marketing plan.
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Sputnik Music
Billy Corgan remains a talented and fascinating figure in popular music and has managed to make a good album from the torn and frayed pages of his past. And while not enough to stand among the best the Pumpkins have to offer, Zeigeist nonetheless stands fairly well on it's own, Smashing Pumpkins or no. Not bad for picking up the pieces and gluing them back together.
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Slant
While the Smashing Pumpkins’ first new album in seven years, Zeitgeist, addresses the political and social upheaval that has occurred in the world since 2000’s MACHINA: The Machines Of God, Billy Corgan and his band haven’t really captured the spirit of the time since the apex of grunge rock. Zeitgeist is the Pumpkins’ most aggressively metal album to date. But heaps of guitars, vocal overdubs, and ridiculous effects don’t mask a lack of inventiveness or even plain ol’ quality songwriting.
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BBC
At least the music pummels away with no mercy, like a rabid boxer or an annoying child next to you on the bus. ‘'Doomsday Clock'’ kicks off the record and it is fiercely, brilliantly intense rock, the like of which even the Pumpkins themselves haven’t really managed since '‘Quiet'’ booted the hell out of their breakout album, Siamese Dream.
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Phoenix New Times
With drummer Jimmy Chamberlin the lone member of the classic Pumpkins lineup remaining — a good move, as his influence keeps Zeitgeist reined-in and focused — Corgan embraces the quintessential hit-making calculus that brought him critical respect and rabid fandom in the early 1990s. Distortion, noise, heavily layered vocals, and quiet-to-loud dynamics permeate the first half of Zeitgeist, only letting up briefly for one extended period of instrumental wankery — "United States," a song that ends up functioning as a transition into the second half of the album, which contains keyboard-heavy (and poppier) songs.
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Cluas
While Zeitgeist sounds intrinsically like a Smashing Pumpkins album, it sounds like a Smashing Pumpkins album from the 1990’s. A diplomatic description of the bands first release in seven years is ‘pointless.’ A more damning critique would be to view Zeitgeist as nothing more than Billy Corgan shoring up his pension fund.
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Contact Music
Well, it would be a bit of a stretch to call this a Smashing Pumpkins record really, as only Corgan and Chamberlain remain from the classic line-up, it could just as easily be called a Billy Corgan solo album. That said, the wailing, heavy metal guitars and OTT production means this sounds quintessentially Pumpkins, Jimmy Chamberlain's drums also sound mightily impressive. The trouble is, while this may have that Smashing Pumpkins 'sound', it lacks any of the classic songwriting or sheer inventiveness of their peak, attributes that were abundant on Mellon Collie.
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Everything Gone Green
Sadly, those successes are undermined by Corgan’s worst excesses and indulgences. ‘Starz’ is just plain awful. ‘For God And Country’ is a promising tune ruined by lazy songwriting and dreadful Eighties production, and not for the first time on the album we get a pretty ugly Brian May-esque guitar sound on the closer ‘Pomp And Circumstance’. In fact, it is almost fitting when the album finishes with the sort of solo that would have even Queen fans cringing. Overall, a big disappointment, yes, but perhaps not the career-ending disaster some would have you believe. There are glimpses of promise on Zeitgeist, and if Corgan can channel some of the criticism in a positive way, as opposed to taking it as badly and as personally as he usually does, then he, and the Smashing Pumpkins (sic), are capable of bouncing back.
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Now Toronto
Corgan’s voice was in shockingly good form, and the sheer onslaught of hits and recognizable album cuts was mind-blowing.
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The Skinny
Seven years, one band and one solo album later, Billy Corgan's resurrected Smashing Pumpkins are back, and thankfully they've lost none of their ability to surprise and delight. The spine-chilling metal workout of 7 Shades of Black proves that Corgan has lost none of his bite, and the delicate intensity of Bleeding the Orchid is simply one of the best songs to have ever carried the SP name. On an album of highlights, Starz is the other clear standout; a vintage Pumpkins composition that boasts some incredible production that looks to the past whilst sounding mercilessly futuristic. United States is the ten-minute centrepiece that broods and builds before shredding really fucking hard, whilst Bring the Light counterpoints Corgan's cultural criticisms with a joyously upbeat vocal and a solo that will take your face off. Pomp and Circumstances rounds things out with the kind of daring, expansive romanticism that separates the Pumpkins from everyone else. A great achievement.
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Clevescene
Zeitgeist is a humorless affair, with nearly zero hooks. Remove Corgan's voice and a couple of decent guitar solos, and you could scarcely guess who made this music.
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IGN
In reality the album sounds more like outtakes from Machina than anything. Corgan's guitars have melded into a much slushier wall of sound, going for all-encompassing muddy tones over his once bristling, razor sharp shards of white heat. His voice sounds a little hashed, as well. But then that's to be expected with the advent of age and the toll that wailing like a banshee can put on the vocal chords. On the flipside, however, Chamberlain's drumming has never sounded more apocalyptic, banging and thrashing with rhythmic abandon.
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Music OMH
The first portion of it sounds like a halfway house to Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. The epic heavy sounds of the era are recreated soberly by means of Doomsday Clock, 7 Shades Of Black and the jarringly OTT stomp of Tarantula. Recounting such thoughts, by this point almost an hour has been spent in the company of a record which stares back at you with the appeal of an ex you’d rather not have bumped into.
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Sound Opinions
Zeitgeist is the band's first record since they ended their alternative reign in 2000, but this time only half of the original members are back. Pumpkins' impresario Billy Corgan is joined by long-time collaborator Jimmy Chamberlin, as well as two other musicians standing in for James Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky. In true Corgan fashion, the band is already making news. The problem is that now this music sounds like almost everything else. With angsty rock bands like My Chemical Romance and AFI on the scene, the Pumpkins aren't really offering anything unique.
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RFT
What’s interesting about Zeitgeist is that Corgan has all but abandoned the past decade of Smashing Pumpkins experimentation – in particular, the electro-industrial darkness of Adore and Machina’s New Order-inspired Britpop/new-wave – in favor of the sound that brought him critical respect and rabid fandom in the early 1990s.
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O Cities
Zeitgeist may not deliver anything especially new to Smashing Pumpkins fans, but there's nothing wrong with a let's get back to basics (if overdubbing 100 guitars can be considered "basics") and rock out sort of summit between two talented buds. Whether or not they are a "real band," or whether new members Jeff Schroeder (guitar), Ginger Reyes (bass), and Lisa Harriton (keyboards) will be embraced by the band's diminished fanbase (this album was the band's third disappointing seller in a row) remains to be seen, but for now I don't mind simply breaking out my air guitar (and air drums) while rocking out to this extremely flawed but surprisingly enjoyable album. Hopefully the next time out, with the Pumpkins or not, Corgan will write some memorable songs as well.
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The Guardian
Zeigeist largely avoids the often comic excesses of later Pumpkins records, and it is not as anonymous as his the output of his interim alt.rock supergroup, Zwan. But calling an album Zeitgeist is a terrible idea unless you're really up to speed with popular culture, and Zeitgeist most fully displays Corgan's roots as a nerdy, 70s stadium-rock fan. His whine hasn't mellowed with age, and there are some truly horrible guitar effects, but if you remember the unconsciously naff hilarity of late-period Suede, you will recognise that there's some fun to be had from Zeitgeist, albeit in small quantities.
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Last FM
Zeitgeist is the seventh album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released on July 10, 2007 in the United States and Canada. It was the first album The Smashing Pumpkins released after their 2000 disbandment and 2005 reunion. The album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Terry Date. The album would be Chamberlin’s last with the band before his departure in 2009. The album was met with mixed reviews and a strong debut, but gradually slid down the charts. It was certified Gold in the United States on February 1, 2008.
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Pop Matters
Zeitgeist is about our government, it's about our culture, it's about our fixation with the wrong things; there's a reason Paris Hilton adorns the cover for the "Tarantula" single, and it's not because Corgan and Chamberlin are big fans. There are plenty of swipes at the current American administration, and the title of "Doomsday Clock" should tell you all you need to know about where Corgan thinks we're headed should the current state of things be allowed to continue unabated. What Zeitgeist is really about, what all Pumpkins albums are really about, however, is Billy Corgan, and in a way, it seems Corgan himself has accepted that, and is now starting to revel in it. And as he revels in it, he loathes himself a little bit for doing so.
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NME
‘Zeitgeist’ doesn’t completely piss upon the Pumpkins’ ’90s grave. Rather, it just stands there, looking slightly befuddled – as if trying to remember the magic formula. It’s best treated as a curio in the Smashing Pumpkins’ legacy; and for those who grew up on ‘Today’, ‘1979’ and ‘Ava Adore’, you’re better left with your memories.
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Gearslutz
Sounds like it took 30 minutes to mix the whole thing. And 2 days to record. This band is so dead.
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Music Mp3
Most of the songs on Zeitgeist are devoted to the theme of apocalypses, yet with all the sullenness of The Smashing Pumpkins the album is not devoid of positive moments as well.
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Enacademic
"Zeitgeist" is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. "Zeitgeist" was released on July 6, 2007 in certain countries and on July 10, 2007cite web |url=http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/ |title=SMASHING PUMPKINS |accessdate=2007-05-16 |format= |work= ] in the United States and Canada. It is the first studio album The Smashing Pumpkins have released since their 2000 disbandment and 2005 reunion. The album was produced by Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, Terry Date, and Roy Thomas Baker, and was recorded entirely by Corgan and Chamberlin.
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Kerrang
Zeitgeist was arguably harpooned before a single note of it was ever heard. The problem here was not so much songcraft as it was a sense of branding: the record suffered more from a common sense of disappointment that it was not made by all four original members (Billy, Jimmy Chamberlin, D’arcy Wretzky and James Iha), rather than its own inherent quality. True, the manner in which the album was mixed is perplexing and it is certainly bloated in places, but give Zeitgeist a spin in 2018 – and you’ll have to, it’s not on streaming services – and you’ll also hear no shortage of gems. We present to you, the jury, the impossibly brilliant Bring The Light, which features an interstellar guitar solo of the highest order.
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Altpress
Though it’s not Smashing Pumpkins’ most critically acclaimed album, Zeitgeist proved to be a turning point for the band (who starred in AP 61, by the way). And the production of the album was unique from other creations at the time.
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Uncut
Zeitgeist comprehensively fails to suck is an achievement in and of itself. It is transparently a record with something to prove, and Corgan has approached it with passionate determination: From the tumultuous first surge of opener “Doomsday Clock,” Zeitgeist comes on with a vicious energy, a jugular-grabbing intensity. And while Corgan never strays from the signature goth-metal-shoegaze sound that the Pumpkins first trumpeted on their 1991 debut ‘Gish’, and which carried them through their heyday as gianrock,
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Paste
Instead of the wearying cars-and-girls sentiments of the classic-rock it recalls, Zeitgeist offers perfectly inoffensive ruminations on politics and self-affirmation that fit nicely with the music’s ecstatic onslaught. Zeitgeist may not be smart, tasteful or timely, but it is well-wrought stadium rock for people who like a little satori with their guitar solos. And as such, its stoned, immaculate grandiosity fills a void that’s been empty since Siamese Dream.
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Av Club
Zeitgeist ends up sounding like a Corgan career retrospective in B-side form: "That's The Way (My Love Is)" could have been on Mary Star Of The Sea, "Tarantula" on Mellon Collie, "For God And Country" on TheFutureEmbrace, etc., but none of them would have made the final album cut. To their credit, he and Chamberlin never sound like they're phoning it in, which means that maybe they're getting warmed up. Then again, it could just be that they're spent.
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The Gauntlet
ZEITGEIST (Martha's Music/Reprise) marks the Smashing Pumpkins' sixth album and first of new material since 2000. It was produced by Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, with Roy Thomas Baker and Terry Date working separately on various tracks, and represents the culmination of two years of work. ZEITGEIST features the first single "Tarantula"�due to arrive at radio May 22�and such songs as album opener "Doomsday Clock," "United States" and "For God And Country."
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Rte
The weakest of The Smashing Pumpkins' albums, there is nothing on 'Zeitgeist' that would make a Best Of. Corgan has even written better B-sides than what's on offer here - a fact confirmed if you play this record and 1994's 'Pisces Iscariot' compilation back to back. Sounding like someone who's unsure of what made his band special in the first place, Corgan is overly hung up on bludgeon, but the volume never comes close to the spirit of old, while the few slow songs fail to tug the heartstrings like he once did so well.
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Billboard
The Smashing Pumpkins have settled on the track list for "Zeitgeist," the first album since 2000. As previously reported, the album is due July 7 via Martha's Music/Reprise. A first single has yet to be specified, nor has the makeup of the band beyond original frontman Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin.
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Exclaim
A lot of Zeitgeist, the Pumpkins' 2007 comeback album is pretty forgettable — at least compared to their own output — and some tracks from the Teargarden EP series are pretty mediocre. The sharp hooks and melodies that Corgan seems to write so effortlessly most of the time show up in very short supply. It's the only time in the Pumpkins' career that it sounds like Corgan was writing an album he thought people wanted to hear, instead of whatever the heck he was truly feeling.
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Las Vegas Weekly
It would be misleading to call Zeitgeist the first genuine new Smashing Pumpkins album in seven years. While it’s got the Smashing Pumpkins name on the sleeve, it’s really just another solo album for Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, who’s brought along original Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin but otherwise plays all of the instruments on the album himself.
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Gear
When you listen straight through you kind of get this heavy/psychedelic vibe coming off it, I think that was Roy's intention. Also really like the guitar and drum tones. Bogner, Diezel amps and expensive stuff like that.
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Straight
Zeitgeist , featuring Corgan, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and exactly zero other people who used to be in the band. Come to think of it, wasn't that pretty much the lineup of Zuma (or whatever it was called)? Oh sure, other notable musicians were involved, but no one had any illusions about who was calling the shots. Anyhow, the dynamic duo have decided to focus on the meat-and-potatoes rock side of the Pumpkins sound. That means there's no "Tonight, Tonight", "Disarm", or "1979" here. It's all Stonehenge-size guitars and hammer-of-the-gods beats. And, it must be said, both elements sound freaking awesome. The thundering-toms intro to "United States" makes a strong case that–Dave Grohl be damned–Chamberlin is the best drummer in rock.
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Genius
On July 10, 2007, the Smashing Pumpkins returned after a seven year disbandment with the release of their 7th album, Zeitgeist. The two remaining original members of the band, mastermind Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, had a heavy hand in the production and did a majority of the recordings in secrecy. While James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky are absent for the first time in the band’s history, the Smashing Pumpkins sound comes through as clear as ever.
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