Review Summary: A dry, stale, listener-fatigued album with a spotty track lineup and little replay value.
Butchery should be a crime. I’m vegan-take it from me. For all of our history, we’ve gone around and killed smaller animals. We’re not like that anymore, we’re a bit smarter and have the ability to live without brutalizing smaller animals. We’re not cavemen. And in the case of music-butchery should, also, be a crime. And no greater a criminal of music butchery is Billy Corgan on 2007’s biggest flop,
Zeitgeist.
It’s obvious Corgan has seen the error of his ways-new releases
G.L.O.W. and
SuperChrist, while not having much actually originality or classic Pumpkins charm, have an extremely gritty production and style, something harking back to the muddy waters of
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. However, this album has only two volumes. Loud and quiet. The music never changes in melody or dynamics-outside of a few parts to
Bleeding the Orchid and
Tarantula, it’s a garbled mess of over-tuned guitars emulating the old Pumpkins tone, with little success. Instead of the subtle, minor layering of vocals from older releases where the vocals were buried and harmonized with the screeching guitars, they are turned loud, and given the insatiable Freddy Mercury treatment. In fact, on
Bleeding the Orchid, this layering absolutely kills a potentially amazing song. The track lineup is atrocious and drole, plus Corgan lacks all bite whatsoever. He hides behind a moody, boring Zwan vocal approach with no snarls, screams, or bites at all. The worst part is that the tracks are all dynamically impaired, even the 'slow' and experimental like
Pomp and Circumstance sound like watered-down rockers with little substance.
Of course, like all post
Adore Corgan albums, his brilliance shines through in spotty places.
Doomsday Clock has a killer song structure, fantastic riff layout, and great opening.
Tarantula is altogether a track that will stand among
Bullet With Butterfly Wings and
Zero, and the b-side
Stellar is the new
Set the Ray to Jerry-type cult favorite for the new Pumpkins generation. But
Doomsday Clock faltered from poor vocal mastering and Lars Ulrich-inspired snare,
Tarantula’s epic, warm and fuzzy, retro breakdown didn’t last nearly long enough, and
Stellar never hit it’s climax.
Zeitgeist won’t be remembered for being “the spirit of the times”, unfortunately for Corgan, it’s going to be “all that could have been”.
Zeitgeist is an album filled with what-ifs and what didn’t happen.
I can’t place my finger on this issue that hurts the album, but it feels, disorderly. The tracks seem to be doing four different things at once. The music seems to be extremely low-budget and cheap, the synthesizer modules and keyboards used on the album are something I toyed with when I was five. The guitar tuning is extremely old-fashioned and barrels with gallons of wah practically ruining the album’s best part, the 20 seconds of
Tarantula’s breakdown. Jimmy Chamberlin’s drum production teeters in-between
St. Anger and
TheFutureEmbrace on a few of the tracks, clearing two of the worst albums of the decade in the process. The bass is so muddy and muffled, this sounds more like something Jason Newsted was a part of than Billy Corgan. The constant echoing riffs that are so overused get frustratingly repetitive that it sounds like a bad rendition of
Heavy Metal Music. Billy tries to use his voice to create atmosphere in songs, killing all possibilities for the song because of that disgusting tone he was peddling. And that brings another issue with the album-Corgan’s vocals. He still has that soft/loud tone, but he underutilizes that bite he was so famous for. “Intoxicated/with the madness” from
Zero bordered on all-time epic, with the brutal scream “Intoxicated!” that suddenly switched to delicately soft “with the madness” has become a constant drawl mixed with a fascination with a lisp vocal performance that does little other than whine, makes his vocal performance a true embarrassment. The Freddy Mercury-layering does little to help this major problem-enlarging it to epic proportions. In
United States, Corgan barrels his vocal box for a brutal screech during “Do you wanna watch me…” before coughing up “die” instead of barking it like he would have during older albums. Or, the ridiculous “La la la la la” during
Pomp and Circumstance, the teeth have been replaced for dentures.
Lyrically, Corgan hasn’t changed a bit over the years. His vocals are still really pretentious, really fake, and overly poetic. The rocking first half, while shallow, is a bit stronger and tries to make a statement before the album takes a quick U-turn, and it then becomes a cheap electronic pop-rock that is overly-influenced by failed side projects
TheFutureEmbrace and
Zwan, obviously creating the criticisms for bringing the name from the grave. The second half, post-
United States becomes like a terrible Bee Gees record, frolicking between corny pop-rock, Dollar-Tree synth lines, and unemotional, unattached music with the substance of Britney Spears. What happened halfway through the album is a great question, maybe Corgan’s balls dropped off half-way through the making of the album. Whatever it is, Iha and Wretzky’s crap filter would have broke after hearing these songs Corgan cooped up for the second half. I’m still puzzled at the idea of putting songs like
For God and Country,
Pomp and Circumstance, and
(Come On) Let’s Go! on a Pumpkins record. If it’s Billy’s best attempt at a modern
Thirty-Three or
Cupid de Locke, he certainly has become a different person. These songs are over-produced and utterly pompous. Nothing has that simplistic, bare sound of
Spaceboy, it’s all over-produced, noisy garbage.
Zeitgeist was a huge flop that shimmers in places, and rusts in others. With a dwindling replay factor, there’s not much to return to this album for-I wouldn’t be surprised to see it whisked away in favor of the album’s single
Tarantula, the aborted
Doomsday Clock, and the B-side
Stellar on any true Pumpkins’ fans iPod. Don’t be in denial Pumpkins fans, accept it for what it is-a horrible album. If you don’t want another album like this, keep complaining-it’s getting to Corgan. (see
As Rome Burns on Youtube for further information).
This Message Edited On 12.22.08
