The Smashing Pumpkins have released a brand new record entitled – Cyr via Sumerian Records. The highly anticipated follow up to 2018’s Shiny and Oh So Bright Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun is a strong twenty track double album.
The bands’ creativity is one of the many reasons that the ‘Pumpkins have amassed millions of fans over the years. This album has a different feel from their prior LP and Billy Corgan clearly lets the inspiration take him to a place exactly where the music needs to be.
When I chatted with guitarist Jeff Schroeder a few weeks ago, he broke down the bands process of writing and recording. Jeff told me, “We’ll start injecting things at an earlier stage but once it became clear that this record was going to be a synth heavy record, the question of guitar, it had to become more of a conceptual idea and how we’re going to do this.”
Another thing that I took from our conversation was that the band doesn’t really go into a studio session trying to make a certain type of record. Whatever the inspiration that seems to strike is the direction the album starts to go. I would not be surprised if future releases go even more electronic or completely heavy drum and guitar based. That’s what makes every Smashing Pumpkins release listen worthy. They put out the best of what they inspired to created at that moment.
There is still that classic Billy Corgan vocal tone and complex songwriting but it is delivered in a soothing and subtle way for much of the album. Combined with the backing vocals of guest vocalists, Katie Cole and Sierra Swan, the album provides a place to get lost in, vocally.
There are also some really great guitar performances happening during these songs as well. Whether it’s nicely timed time staccato notes in a song like Anno Satana or a clean and warm acoustic guitar like in Ramona. Corgan along with guitarists Jeff Schroeder and James Iha have done a really good job of adding in a bundle of necessary and unique guitar pieces without being overt.
I have a few songs that standout to me as my personal favorites and one of the them includes that crisp and quick snare work of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin in the song Wyttch. You sort of knew something sinister was up when that baseline begins to one of the more aggressive (and fuzzy) songs on the record.
Another song to add to the immediate “check out” list is Purple Blood. This might be one of the best vocal performances on the entire album. There are some very good vocal harmony moments here not only from the guest vocalists we spoke of earlier but by Corgan himself.
The title track, Cyr is a great barometer of what this album has to offer. There’s the slight aggressive personality, the overall synth feeling, terrific vocal and guitar drop ins that are not in your face but completely fill the space in between what is happening everywhere else. This is an absolute play on repeat type of song for those late night drives alone in the car. I’m already looking forward to it.
The Smashing Pumpkins have done a great job with Cyr and although it’s a healthy dose of music at seventy-two minutes, it already has my musical brain wondering what could be next for this collection of talented artists.
I recommended you go give this collection of songs a deep listen. If you are a fan of the bands’ catalog, this will fit in quite nicely with the creative and robust library of music from the Smashing Pumpkins.
-Tommy Marz
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