So why is The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Let me start off with a little story from my senior year of college at Binghamton University in upstate New York – one of the best years of my life.
I lived with nine guys – sometimes ten (a great guy nicknamed Jesus; most of us had nicknames from being on the rugby team, though some “stuck” more than others) – in a big ramshackle house on Leroy St.*
* I had long, curly hair at the start of that year – until I stupidly decided to shave it all off – and thus was dubbed “Krusty” a la Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons.
It was a year of blowoff classes and playing rugby (which we took quite seriously) and parties (which we took very seriously), but some of my most favorite memories of all were the times when there was nothing going on, and we simply goofed around.
One day my man Lou (a.k.a. Gwar or Louie Gwar) decided to draw a cartoon sketch, turning everyone in the house into superheroes, and it came out fantastically cool. The best part about it was that the superhero theme for each person tied very nicely to their personality.
Lou turned us into the Couch Twins, for example – playing off the Wonder Twins, going all the way back to Superfriends (an ’80s cartoon that most from my generation know intimately). I think our “superpowers” were something like the ability to turn into anything we saw on TV. But more importantly, I recall that his t-shirt in the sketch displayed “Alice in Chains,” with “Nirvana” on mine.
Very on brand.
And our dude Nirav, who was the resident alternative rock expert in the house (and who would later turn me onto Frank Black’s solo albums, for which I’m forever thankful), was transformed into The Smashing Pumpkin, as he was a huge fan of the band of the same name. His superhero character might have been the coolest of all: on his chest “ZERO” was displayed, just as Billy Corgan’s shirt reads in the “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” music video.
But that’s just the start. In one hand, The Smashing Pumpkin held a flaming pumpkin aloft (what else?) that he could use to vanquish his presumably non-alt rock-loving enemies.
And that’s all a long way of getting around to saying that The Smashing Pumpkin’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness played a small but important role during that incredible year, “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and “Zero” and “Tonight, Tonight” and “1979” all on heavy rotation on that year’s soundtrack, if there was such a thing.
The massive double album – which runs just over two hours(!) in all – has occasional, forgettable stretches, but the highs are really high. Mellon Collie isn’t quite the Pumpkins’ best album (that’d be Siamese Dream, #47 of best 1,000 albums ever), but it shows off the band at its confident, ambitious, and expansive peak.
“Zero” remains my favorite song on Mellon Collie, and it’s very close to being my overall favorite Smashing Pumpkins song. The guitar hook is absolutely killer, everything you want in a hard rocking alt rock smasher.
I recall reading an interview with Billy Corgan many years ago, where he’s asked about the line, “God is empty… just like me,” and he talked about how it’s expressing a feeling that he might have once per year or so. I really like how writing and art and music can turn a feeling or idea – even a dark and fleeting one – into something timeless.
Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness
And cleanliness is godliness, and God is empty
Just like me
There are also a bunch of gems floating around the Infinite Sadness if you’re willing to put the time in, ranging from the satisfyingly grungy “Love” to gorgeous and sweet numbers like “Cupid De Locke.”
Some stats & info about The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, Chicago Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness released? 1995
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #252 out of 1,000
The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Intoxicated with the madness, I’m in love with my sadness.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.