Smashing Pumpkins- ATUM (November 15, 2022; January 31, 2023; April 21, 2023) • Page 3

https://www.reddit.com/r/SmashingPu...y_hope_this_snippet_works_if_it_does_and_you/

No words.

 

my main takeaway as usual w their recent material is "I feel so bad for jimmy"

 

that is one of the worst things i've ever heard lmfao

 

Haha Oh my what dog shit

 

Billy plz.

 

LMAO I can't believe that's real

 

I'm listening now. The Good in Goodbye is in a similar vein as Beguilled, but the rest just sounds like Cyr part two.

 

Ok I finished the album. Hooray may be the worst song I've ever heard.
I could make a decent 5 song EP out of Good in Goodbye, With Ado I Do, Hooligan, Steps in Time and Where Rain Must Fall.

 

no new problems. billy shouldn't self-produce and needs a rigorous editor/collaborator (which he'll never allow). the music sounds too much like shit for any promise to shine through. it's not even the use of synths + drum machines that irks ("pug" and "eye" rule! the solo album is not terrible and sounds much fuller than this!), it's the "first draft" feel of these songs and the rinky-dink sound that makes you wonder how many of those 3xLP packages are going to end up in landfills.

 

That clip sounds cool to me. Gimme 3 albums of we only come out at night

 

agreed that billy needs a producer and to record in a studio that doesn't make everything sound like a preset or recorded straight to a computer. cyr still had some of his best songwriting since oceania so i'm hopeful on the basis that this is wacky and synthy but also... god it's so depressing he'll never make something as cool-sounding as adore again. that album is texturally flawless

 

I saw a Reddit comment in defense of this music saying "Billy's been making synth music for 25 years!"

This does not sound like that. At all. It sounds like he picked up a synth on GarageBand in the last year and is still figuring out how to use it. I really really am trying to like this but good God this is sour.

 

He has desperately needed an editor or outside producer since 1999

 

They posted something about act one and turned off the comments. They must know it sucks and don’t want to be criticized

 

well at least the cover art is their best since, idk, adore?

 

ok, i put this on. the opening fanfare is, in fact, really good

 

I like Steps in Time, it seems the closest we'll get to what we expected when James & jimmy re-entered the fray ...

 

lmao i'm on "embracer" and i'm really enjoying myself so far, but again i liked cyr

 

"hooligan" RULES

 

Yeah I dig that one too. Personally I think tracks 3-8 are great but kind of nosedives after that.
I have a feeling that, just like Cyr, this 33 song trilogy could be whittled down to a really solid 12 song playlist.

 

"where rain must fall" sounds like he's trying to write a cocteau twins song (the instrumentation is way too sharp to effectively come off as cocteaus, mostly referring to the vocal melody/rounds toward the end)

 

the older I get the more adore seems like one of the best albums of all time

 

Reaction after one listen is this is good

 

I have mixed thoughts about this disc.

I don't dislike the songs (although Hooray! is weird and very unlike anything I'd expect from Smashing Pumpkins) and they definitely hit some of the right notes I'm looking for in Pumpkins music, but it also wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, and it doesn't feel like more than just a collection of songs. It doesn't feel like a cohesive thing, and I don't think that's because it's only the first part of a triple album.

One of the things that really bothers me is that they use the same goddamn synth in every song, and I'm not sure why that is. I'm not sure why it's necessary. Like, it's okay to have songs that are just rock songs... you don't have to invoke the spectre of Adore at every turn. It's more interesting to have songs that have different approaches.

I dunno, I think the tepid reaction to Zeitgeist (which I loved) broke Corgan. Oceania was pretty good, but everything after that has felt very aimless.

 

SP Reddit page is just beside itself with "this is terrible, Billy WYD, 'not again, ughhhhhhhh' and basically just melting down over everything with a few 'I think it's actually ok!' posts peppered in. wild ride.