The Smashing Pumpkins - ATUM (A Rock Opera in 3 Acts) ALBUM REVIEW 

Billy needs a producer, for years he's needed someone in the room telling him it's just not interesting enough. Because it's not terrible music, it's just boring now.

part of the issue is Billy trying to write all these big brain concepts about gods and empires and whatever the fuck my uncle Tony likes to rant about at Thanksgiving dinner, when he's best at writing at a personal level. A few of the recent songs that explore personal feelings-- Silvery Sometimes, Being Beige, Tiberius, Solara, and the whole of Oceania-- are pretty good. His production gets progressively worse with each album tho, like wth man.

Mellon Collie was over 2 hours but the music and performances were amazing. The songs all felt different but the album felt cohesive. This album pushes all that ambition into overindulgence.

The Smashing Pumpkins can drop 10 more duds and I will still see them as legends for their 90’s output

so this means that each disc got a point. hear me out, if they dropped a ten-disc album exactly like this, then they'll get a 10 - 10/10 trust me

Glad to see others here giving a strong defense of Machina. Their most underrated album by far. It’s one of the last original rock records I’ve ever heard. They managed to take the gloom and production of something like adore with the eccentricity and energy of Mellon collie and take it all somewhere new. I’ll say, the one disc cut they were forced to put out by the record company doesn’t flow the strongest as an album, but the content of it is fantastic, especially with I and II consumed together. Amazing beautiful creative songs. I’m excited this new album is out finally mostly just because Billy said after it, they’re finally re-releasing Machina the way they actually wanted to in the beginning, as a double concept album.

You would have given this a 10 if it had 10 acts

“A starway to the stars” sounds like it’s a Corey Feldman lyric. And it would probably sound better if it was.

If this was a rock opera in 199 acts, you would’ve given it a 10.

It’s a shame watching a band that shaped my young life fade out.

Lol, I actually didn’t expect Anthony to review another smashing pumpkins record like this. He hasn’t done that since Oceania.

the decline from Oceania has been so steep. i can’t remember a smashing pumpkins release i’ve enjoyed in the past 10 years 😢

You only hate this album because Billy Corgan stole your hairstyle Fantano. Admit it.

I agree with the thoughts on atum, but Machina 1 and 2 don’t deserve to be called non essential. Criminally underrated, the sorta thing that needs to be listened to a couple times to really “get”, but once you hear through all the layers you’ll notice how great the songs are. sonically id even argue it might be their most interesting work. Love how it blends beautiful atmospheric shoegazey stuff with heavy cyber metal jams

Billy is truly his worst enemy, and I’ll never forgive him for inexplicably firing the previous lineup of the band that recorded Oceania, which was a actually very good and promising

Thank you melon for acknowledging that Adore is actually a pretty decent album with really good songs

As a Pumpkins fan, this album was so disappointing. It’s a shame that Billy can’t get away from the heavy synth pop rock. This record makes Oh So Shiny seem like a great album.

I'm glad you did include Adore. Though I started listening to them with Siamese Dream, Melon Collie was possibly my favorite overall. I ended up being really surprised - pleasantly - with Adore also, and it was ultimately a really cool night time driving album - very moody and some of them with lyrics that measured up to the earlier albums. Unfortunately it doesn't surprise me if this one kind of falls flat. Even though I watched, and genuinely enjoyed, the interview that Rick Beato did with Corgan and released recently - its notable that the interview focused almost entirely on the period up to Melon Collie. Don't get me wrong, I would be thrilled to get a new album that measured up to the 1990's albums, but starting with the Machina (sp?) albums he/they lost my interest. I still go back to the older albums, but the later ones not really at all.

The thing that ruled about Mellon Collie is that there are so many tracks and so many ideas that still feel like they work together as a whole concept. So many different moods, aesthetics, approaches across it’s two-discs yet feels coherently dreamlike in scope and really transports you sonically. Meanwhile it has hits on it that work as singles and radio hits on their own, that still fit into the grand scheme of the record. Can’t really think of too many concept albums of the same size that really nail that.

Bald on bald violence 😂

it only gets worse when you remember that Atum in portuguese means Tuna, so it stinks as a rotten tuna.

If this was by The Smashing Melons you would give it a 10/10

You forgot to mention Pisces Escariot, those B sides were better than anything post Adore.

The Machina albums might be their most underappreciated works. I recently heard II for the first time and was surprised by how much fun it is. Zeitgeist to now has been very bumpy, but at least they can still perform well live, especially Jimmy.

Billy has complained in interviews about fans only wanting to hear his hits from SP's first run, and thats all I need to hear to know he really doesnt get it. If you want fans to be excited about your new music, Billy, make it memorable.

Gish is so amazing..young and hungry. Billy for sure (like a lot of older bands) needs someone to kick new life and tell him when something kinda rocks and when something kinda sucks.

I’m so sick of the overwhelming NOTHING in fantano comment section like I wish he could filter out the copy and pasted jokes

Did he really include Machina in the bad bunch of albums? lol

Oceania is 85% a classic SP album. The songwriting is solid, and the production is like a perfect mix of old school SP and pushing forward.

Smashing pumpkins were my favourite band for so many years. Its really sad what has happened to the once great band

Fantano is literally the guy that Billy constantly references in interviews as the "mustache guy from Brooklyn bashing the band with a lazy review" 😂

This made me go back and listen to how awesome Mellon Collie is. I wanna remember them for their 90’s material.

Billy dropping the ball not featuring everyones favourite NWA champ and Fox analyst, Tyrus, on one of the disks. Easy 11/10 if that had materialized.

Smashing Pumpkins have managed to be one of the greatest bands in rock history and one of the worst.

As someone whose coming of age was HEAVILY soundtracked by 90's SP records, Billy's descent into inveterate wackness has been a very hard thing to witness.

If this album was a 10/10 you'd give it a 10/10

C'mon Melon, you can't say Mellon Collie is the better album solely because it has your name in it.

Anthony, the Smashing Pumpkins disbanded 20 years ago. Why are you reviewing a fake Smashing Pumpkins album that doesn't exist

Billy Corgan & the Infinite Bad Album Streak

I had a custom embroidered ZERO shirt made for me when I was like six (96'), and sang Siamese/MCIS songs to my kindergarten class on guitars made of Mega Blocks. Gish through Machina are masterpieces to me. Machina II, Zeitgeist, Future Embrace & parts of Oceania have sparks of genius - but after that - ooof. I remember thinking even Monuments to an Elegy had something going for it. But the last decade has been rough. I could list all the artistic choices that have contributed to it, but other channels have done this in great detail. All I know is now we have descended into music made for Hobby Lobby soccer moms on Ambien. It sounds like it was made by someone who has never been sad....or happy. What was once mysterious, ethereal and cutting edge has become predictable, stagnant and somehow dated. Billy can do whatever he wants of course, but man I hope the next effort doesn't continue this trend. How is he not getting bored of this sound by now?

Billy has been at this for years. Trying to be the sole leader of a musical project doesn’t suit him and there’s ample evidence to suggest this. Even in interviews this year he still has a tangible but unfounded (imo) bitterness towards the producers of The Pumpkins’ best records. To recapture the magic of those 90s and early 2000s records he needs to work with a producer who can help him.

I will disagree with this review on exactly one point: I actually quite like the album Oceania, the one bright spot in their post-90s discography. Otherwise, yeah, from what I've heard so far from this album, Fantano's correct.

Adore was generally panned when it came out and it holds up as one of their best albums. I had heard all the ATUM songs individually before the entire album was available. I wasn't overly impressed with probably 50%, but listening to the entire work, they seem to have more continuity together than I expected. Having been a fan since Gish, this one is definitely not for first time listeners of SP. Most of the recent stuff has aged better with me than when it first came out.

Their first 4 albums are magic some of the best albums ever…sad to see them go into such a drab drought. Also Siamese Dream is a top 10 album of all time and Mellon Collie top 25.

This review is SO well said. I'm a fan of this channel & the genuine, insightful reviews. I'm also a fan of The Smashing Pumpkins, so much so that I have found more than a few gems on their albums which are widely classified as subpar (both 'Doomsday Clock' & 'Tarantula' off of Zeitgeist and 'Panopticon' & 'The Chimera' off of Oceania are truly fabulous songs). That said, even those are more than a decade old - and I agree they've lost their way. I'll take it one step further, I'm a Los Angeles-based drummer and one of my projects is a Smashing Pumpkins tribute act. Diehard fans often ask us about a few obscure album tracks and there are a handful on our list, but literally nobody asks us to play anything newer than 'Ava Adore' which is 25 years old. The fans have spoken, and sure, some of that is nostalgia, but A LOT of that just comes down to the difference between GREAT songs and GOOD songs.

As a brazilian, I find hilarious that this album is called "Tuna"

Shoutout to the people on Genius posting summaries of what Billy Corgan said about the songs on his Thirty-Three podcast. There is a whole story and several characters the album-only listener will not know about. You need to have the website open while you listen, or you will be lost. It is confounding. It is like, damnit Billy, establish the characters, setting, and action in the song instead of waves of purple prose. Don't leave all the important stuff silent and between songs. He really needed to look to Janelle Monáe's ArchAndroid saga to see how it should be done!

if the album was named ATEN you wouldve given it a ten.

Oceania from 2012 was a decent record with some highlights. It was actually reviewed postively by critics. Corgan spoke about the praise as though the critics were finally catching up to his genius. It was probably because it was more straightforward and less self- indulgent than it was reviewers not 'getting' him. Corgan is a great musician and he has one of the best drummers around in his band. It's a shame he can't put those things to better use.

Fantano you didn't have to give this a 3 just because Billy Corgan booked Tyrus as NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion

It’s crazy how some artists just completely lose their mojo at some point. It’s with Billy, and sadly also with Tori Amos. Her first four albums (from Little Earthquakes on) were inspired, groundbreaking, daring, haunting, deep, just great art, but ever since then it’s so watered down and only with a few fleeting glimpses of what once was, dare I say it, her normal genius. What anthony left out in the good-pumpkins-collection was Pisces Iscariot, the b-sides of Siamese Dream.. such interesting sounds and melodies and moods on every track! Or take the “Pistaccio medley” from the Mellon Collie-era - wow, each segment each idea so promising. And now..? I really hope Tori and Billy love what they are doing now, otherwise they must be really depressed. Once genius, now they open the tap and there’s just nothing good coming out anymore where once was gold, no matter how much they try.

billy corgan sucks? who would have guessed

I remember attending a show from their supposed “last” tour (the Machina tour) and thinking it was such a shame that they were disbanding. Now I think of that as the wonderful road not taken: if only they had really disbanded there and then.

You can listen to just about any 90's Pumpkins songs and immediately relate to them. It's why many people consider them an important band from their teen years. I have absolutely no idea what Billy is trying to get across with his current output. These songs are supposed to connect with...who, exactly?

The best thing about this new Smashing Pumpkins album is that it reminded me to go listen to those early Pumpkins records again. For that, I thank them.

The Pumpkins’ 90s output was all golden. It’s really sad that they’ve fallen off as bad as they have done and never really recovered (though I thought Oceania was actually pretty decent for what it’s worth). They remain one of my favourite bands just for those first 4 albums and all the b sides that were released early in their career but…yeah. Billy should just hang it up. Dude doesn’t have it anymore. Lost his magic a long time ago.

Bald on Bald Violence is a top 3 name

Billy's nasally vocals are even more glaringly apparent when there's nothing else to distract you from them

Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie, Adore, MACHINA and MACHINA II are brilliant records. All of them. I don’t just say that because I grew up with these records as they were released - even now, as I’m about to turn 40, these albums still resonate with me on multiple levels and never fail to maintain the same musical impact that they had the first time I heard them. But now? I think it’s safe to say Zeitgeist was the last album that even sounded like Smashing Pumpkins. Nothing they have done since has any of the style, attitude, spirit or lyrical tone of that band. It’s just bland, generic, middle-of-the-road rock. I listened to the whole of ATUM and it all just blends together. Nothing stands out, nothing has any subtlety to it and it’s all utterly forgettable. The band I grew up with has been gone for a very long time. At best, this band is The Squashing Pumpkins. Thank fuck we at least have a new Swans album to look forward to this year.

Bald on bald violence ☠️

As far as rock operas go, it's certainly no "The Nightman Cometh"

It's such a strange feeling of being a big fan of the band and disliking their newer records so much. Also was hoping Anthony would mention Hooray! cause that's a real head-scratcher

It must be very flattering and almost surreal to put out a weak album and yet everyone still gives you praise and support because of how incredible Mellon Collie was in their lives.

If this was MELON collie and the Infinite sadness you would have give it a 10!

Whether you like this album or not, Fantano criticizing anyone saying "overly indulgent" is hilarious.

My fave album by them was the B sides collection Pisces Iscariot. Siamese Dream is a classic as well.

I was honestly waiting for a Pumpkins review. But I feel you still owe us a classic review of one of their 90s classics Pumpkin.

This inspired me to listen to Siamese Dream, thanks Anthony

crazy how smashing pumpkins have been in the genre since 1979!!! thats like more than 2 years!!!

Funny enough, there was a 90s act that put out an album last week that actually had a sensible length, good production and generally fucking ruled and that was the new Therapy? album, Hard Cold Fire.

Despite all my rage, I’m still just a 3 out of 10

Gish through Machina is a legendary run but it’s just sad what this band has been putting out

It's so sad, man. I wish Billy would just drop a tab for old times sake and his mind would reset back to what it was when he made Gish.

I dont know about Atum, but dont listen to the Melon: the Machina albums are great and have outstanding songwriting and sonics. Billy did good also on Oceania. I think those albums aged well and are more interesting to rediscover than, say, to listen to gish and siamese dream for the millionth time.

I feel a very close connection to Smashing Pumpkins in particular. My older brother got a poster from one of their concerts. I grew up loving Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and I still do. I need to listen to Gish still since I haven't heard it all the way through yet. Sadly, it doesn't seem like any of the band's 21st Century albums are capturing their 90's heyday. I was excited for Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts conceptually, but I likely figured it would suffer from the quality decline.

Looking forward to seeing the revised score in a few years!

can’t believe Smashing Pumpkins collabed with Autumn! this confirmed makes him the best out of OG slayworld. nice fake out with the red flannel haha, the 10/10 was surprising but well deserved. wonderful review Andtony 👍

why is the main singer of the smashing talking bad about his own album?

Billy did an interview with Rick Beato semi-recently, where he said he absolutely anticipates AI to completely take over music...and after hearing that (and reflecting on the bands last few records), it seems pretty apparent to me that as far as his music concerned, it already has.

We all must understand that the pumpkins always bring a new flavor to our plate in every single record and it is always something different/unexpected. Sometimes people hate it at first and then they can imagine their life without it (Adore, Machina I + II, and Cyr for me). Strange and weird (also sad) music is what defines their catalog. Once they first stopped with shoegaze/grunge songs people said that they lost their essence or something like that, but their essence (sometimes just Billy's) is going beyond and creating something new. That's a pity because people who say this definitely don't know their actual catalog, there are elements of atum songs that are present in songs from Pisces, Siamese Dream, MCIS, and Adore. Atum is a sequel to MCIS and Machina bc those albums have a story behind the tracks, have you ever considered that the Zero tee is more than a t-shirt with a song name on it? I'm not saying that the storytelling is good, but I'm trying to point out that this is not some made-up sh*t to sell the record. I rejected Beguilled when it was first released. I don't hate it anymore, but I don't listen every day. At the same time, there are songs like Space Age, Every Morning, To The Grays, Gold Mask, Avalanche, and Spellbinding that I can't spend more than 2 days without listening to it! Btw, loved the review. I really wanted to hear your thoughts on!!

I’m desperate to explore this huge discography but I’m too scared of the stuff that doesn’t end on albums. Is there a reddit post that documents their discography in full? Including unreleased stuff?

Giant Baby Composing new music.

Whenever I listen to a new record, I always find some elements that make me return to them. Even if they are small glimps in a single track, but I always like to come back and listen to the whole thing. This album left me with nothing. And I'm sorry about it, because I fell in love with SP not too far ago after seeing them live and witnessing this fall is tough (can't even imagine how die hard fans from the 90s must feel). There's only one track that got me return to it: Every Morning. I don't know why, seriously. BUT it's not even a Pumpkins kind of track and it's not even a single out of the record. I find it nice, but again: it's not SP

I saw SP last october and it was amazing. I wasn’t a SP fan at all and i was actually going to see Poppy but the SP were really good live unlike a lot of these legacy acts. Empires was pretty good live but the good in goodbyes is unlistenable

What if it was chipmuck remix of it ... theh it would be a 10 lol

Siamese Dream is the album of my mid teens that ruled my life. So I’m biased, but also I’ve lived a whole other life since then that only sometimes had SP in it. This album is far from perfect, but it’s great. I love so much The Gold Mask, for example. His gorgeous croak, amazing melody, and weird sense of composition. It’s lovely. He’s never going to make a “classic album” again. It doesn’t happen like that. The best of their time break it all, we die loving it, and then burn them out because it’s not possible to do what they did before, again. Fuck all that. Also I totally love Fantano, and I’m not trying to change the review. He’s also fkn brilliant.

You painted with too broad a brush in saying Machina through Oceania were duds. Machina was a welcome return to a more aggressive sound after Adore, layered with poignant dream pop. There weren't many singles on it, but the songwriting was rich and deep. Oceania was promising, progressive and nimble, and his guitar work & melodic writing on Violet Rays was phenomenal. Zeitgest was more monochrome but is aging better than I expected. While I agree that their last few records have failed to impress, I think it was a little glib to write off that middle era and frame SP as has-beens or simply a 90's band. They sustained good writing until 2012 and so from that vantage point, I think their legacy remains intact.

hmmm when you said soul sucking experience that hit a chord with me. I am a huge SP fan, and i've felt empty listening to this album, its hard to even pinpoint how the songs were written, on guitar, on piano, on a synth, what is the origin of all this? It does seem soulless - and i felt empty from listening. Siamese Dream on the other hand is an album that for 25 plus years i have almost a soul connection with, its songs and feelings are intertwined with me on a musical level. What happened ?

I like the spellbinding song. Call me a child of the 90s lol.

When Anthony starts any review talking in positive terms about a band... you know he is going to trash all over their album xD

But…. Did you like it?😂 cracking review, really enjoyed this one. I’m a lot more tolerant of the later output but I can fully understand the frustration. To be fair the pumpkins seem to enemy number one from reviewers who expect their new output to match the 90s stuff. Plenty of other bands don’t carry that expectation.

fantano when old rock band make amazing new album : 🤬🤬🤬

They were one of my favorite bands, and it's sad how they become literally unlistenable, but honestly it's baffling how Machina gets thrown in there among the "new era of unlistenable SP". Machina and Machina 2 are both great records.

This is Billy doing what he wants to do now. I think it's more for his enjoyment than for ours. I'm always going to listen to what he does, whether or not it's for me. ANYONE who can put together the music he has done....deserves my respect.

Honestly, it's refreshing to see that Billy Criggs is still passionate and ambitious all those years later. Not saying this album is in any way comparable to any of the classic works (Machina being my personal favorite) but you also can't say that it's a cash grab or that it's 'going through the motions'. I'm not crazy about the overly arranged and manicured feel or the philosophy behind the whole concept but I'll give them props for still going for it.

I will say I personally tapped out after Oceania and as much as I didn't hate Oceania at the time I saw them on that tour and they played the entire album top to bottom which was bonkers! That being said I never thought I'd like another SP album and this one was surprisingly good! Definitely not great and definitely not comparable to their golden era but I would say there is at least a few tracks per disc I was into. That being said would it have been better if the best from each "act" was instead put onto a single album? I think without a doubt yes! But also read next album will be a straight rock record, so if at the very least this album paves the way to something more in line with the classic stuff I'd say it was all worth it.

You forgot Pisces Iscariot my fav Pumpkins album ~ which had an extended version released in 2017ish and it is amazing!! Areoplane flies high is also a fav, just a couple of mornings ago getting my kids ready for school we listened to Last Song, The Bells, …Said Sadly, The Boy, Believe, Medilla of Grey Skies 😭 I love that song it’s perfect raw sad Billy. Yeah but as a major fan I cannot get behind any of their new stuff. Adore was the last time they were relevant. Would love for you to compare new Alice In Chains versus old Alice In Chains. I actually don’t mind new Alice In Chains and still have a lot of respect for Jerry Cantrell, even though I’m not really into rock. (But I will always of course adore old Alice In Chains with Layne how could you not)

I really like this album, and 1995-96 was my main listening period. The third act is pretty good bc it has the most “Smashing Pumpkins” sound guitar wise out of the 3. Like people have said, you could whittle this 33 track album into a 12 track album and it would be awesome. In Lieu of Failure is awesome, best SP song in a while.

Yeah i'm with you on this. I think i liked it a little bit more - there are a handful of songs that are actually pretty damn good. but yeah, overall it's a lot of computerized synthy glitter music with Corgans getting-worse-by-the-album vocals. it all sounds like it came out of a laptop and not actual musicians. i think they'd benefit from working with a producer - Billy has been credited as the sole producer for the last 2 SP albums (and as co producer for the last 15 years or so of albums. Not a coincidence that that period also has SP's least good music). Not good. it's a tough pill to swallow overall, and in general feels like a forced work. the whole thing feels like music for people who live alone in abandoned castles. doesn't the best art usually come from a place of flow and inspiration? you can sense how forced this thing feels. like it was difficult to make and the songs dont justify its existence. thats a bit of a harsh criticism lol but thats what i gather from it all. i'm also not a fan of the 'concept album' approach. why not just go back to good ol' fashioned straightforward songwriting? I really like Pink Floyds The Wall, but the story is of very little interest to me. same thing here - i don't care about Shiny (the protagonist of this adventure as told by Billy and explained on his podcast) and the story he's trying to tell. but definitely check out these tracks at least (listed in chronological order): - Good in Goodbye - Beyond the Vale - Moss - To The Grays - Springtimes - In Lieu of Failure (my favorite off this album) - Harmageddon - Fireflies - Spellbinding

I love this review. I thought other RU-vid reviews were harsh, but this one is smashing the proverbial pumpkins into oblivion. I enjoyed about 30% of the album. Corgan could have made a nice (nothing groundbreaking) consistent rock album, and release his space things as sideproject (or outtakes). That would have made this album the best recording released since 2000. Now Corgan overreached and failed. @theneedledrop what do you think of allmusic's 4/5 review?