Smashing Pumpkins - Gish

Before the Pumpkins were a progressive rock band lumped in with the grungers, they were a psychedelic rock band lumped in with the grungers. They were pretty good at it, too. Big rockstar guitar solos, interesting fashion choices, the same producer as Nevermind a few months before that came out.

A lot of rockists will talk breathlessly about Billy Corgan’s tone on later records. While it’s not as expensive-sounding as Mellon Collie or Siamese Dream, the overdriven stratocasters on Gish are a grail to chase on their own merits. The mix is highly dynamic and you can feel the care put into every section - or, from another perspective, the overwhelming control of the mad auteur. They do feel like they’re still figuring themselves out with the drawn out builds and the slightly nonsense lyrics. They don’t reach the intense, euphoric highs of their mid-90s output, but you can see the early predictors of that stardom on the A-side in particular.

The fucked up front cover with its Georges Méliès-style color grading has grown on me. Still, the layout feels a little zoomed-in, and I would have appreciated a lyric booklet. Whoever owned this CD before me took the liberty of writing their surname on it, so if a Mr. or Ms. Challis is reading this, I’m not giving it back to you.

Gish by Smashing Pumpkins is a good album, and I like it.