Highly Recommended Music: Machina by Smashing Pumpkins

You are Pisces Iscariot.
You're a pretty laid back person who makes friends easily.
Ever the optimist, you are usually open to trying new experiences.
People find you interesting and easy to talk to.

Which Smashing Pumpkins album are you?
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Machina: The Machines Of God
Smashing Pumpkins
Released February 29, 2000
Virgin Records

Track Listing:

1."The Everlasting Gaze"* - 4:00
2."Raindrops + Sunshowers" - 4:39
3."Stand Inside Your Love"* - 4:14
4."I of the Mourning"* - 4:37
5."The Sacred and Profane" - 4:22
6."Try, Try, Try"* - 5:09
7."Heavy Metal Machine" - 5:52
8."This Time"* - 4:43
9."The Imploding Voice" - 4:24
10."Glass and the Ghost Children" - 9:56
11."Wound" - 3:58
12."The Crying Tree of Mercury" - 3:43
13."With Every Light" - 3:56
14."Blue Skies Bring Tears" - 5:45
15."Age of Innocence"* - 3:55

*=Highly Recommended tracks

When most Singaporeans hear "Smashing Pumpkins", they'd think "a mess of perfectly edible Halloween fruit". "For my maid to clean". For most other people around the world though, Smashing Pumpkins is one of the true pioneers of the American Alternative Rock movement in the 1990s, to fill the void that came with the death of Kurt Cobain, and subsequently, Grunge. The movement had since spawned notable bands such as My Chemical Romance and 3 Doors Down. And a significant part of this can be attributed to the musical genius and direction of Billy Corgan.

The journey of the Smashing Pumpkins is one reflective of Billy Corgan's own. There were drug abuses, break-ups, patch-ups, highs, lows. Machina, along with Machina 2 (a second disc that was never released due to fear of poor sales after Adore), were meant to close a chapter on the life of Billy Corgan. It is a chapter that had lasted over a decade, and that had made him so wealthy and famous. The chapter of the Smashing Pumpkins. And true enough, Machina was very different from the previous 5 albums.

Machina rocked of love, divinity, true paths - stuff people reflect about as hermits in caves. Billy sings about discovering God, finding love; he sings of relationships both failed and going strong. No more, "Emptiness is loneliness/And loneliness is cleanliness/And cleanliness is godliness/And God is empty, just like me". No more vague relationships such as Adore's, "It's you that I adore/You will always be my whore/You'll be a mother to my child/And a child to my heart". Now, Billy is certain. He knows love, he sees God in a brighter place, and the vehicle in which he searched for these truths, the Smashing Pumpkins, is already weary. The end is the beginning is the end.

But to hell what albums mean. When it comes to the Smashing Pumpkins, not many can decipher the turbulent waves that eminate from Billy's brain. Musically, Machina is an Alternative Rock tour de force. Machina also cements the Smashing Pumpkins' hero status among the followers of teenage Angst. In The Everlasting Gaze, the first track and single off the album, Billy screams to invisible non-believers "You know I'm not dead!" against the backdrop of strong guitar riffs that would make listeners bleed adrenaline. The following single, "Stand Inside Your Love" is a powerful tribute to a lover and epitomises Billy's greatest musical gift: to musically and lyrically deliver powerful images of his thoughts and emotions.

Other stand-out tracks include "I Of The Mourning". While lyrically whiny, it also bears the progressive mark of Hey Jude or Champagne Supernova: a song that begins slow but climaxes in powerful fireworks. "Try, Try, Try", the third and last single off the album, is a lower-tempo ode to the tragic life of drug-laced, star-crossed lovers. But my favourite track of all would be "Age Of Innocence". It sounds pagan, but it also prods to inner peace, while providing a brilliant closure for the album.

A must-buy for the emotionally restless.

Rating: 8.5/10