The nineties have been romanticized since the decade came to a close, and sometimes the hyperbolic praise of the era isn’t too far off. Most see the 90s as a free era, pre-social media, where creativity ran the entertainment business, and corporations like record labels and movie studios were willing to take risks on experimental projects. This allowed for genre-defining releases like Nirvana’s Nevermind, Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar, and the list could go on for pages and pages.
While there are plenty of stunning examples of earthshattering releases from the decade, there are some that outgrew the nostalgia-fueled rush back to the past when the present felt too much, and became undeniable cornerstones for contemporary music; The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness proudly stands as not only a defining LP for one of the most celebrated rock bands of the nineties, but living proof that risks are well worth it when placed into the right hands.
It wasn’t too long after The Smashing Pumpkins got off tour for their 1993 LP, Siamese Dream, that lead singer and head songwriter Billy Corgan began work on the wildly ambitious two-hour, 28-song album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was always intended to be a double album, an undertaking the band decided should fall to the production team of Corgan himself, mysterious super-producer Flood, and acclaimed engineer/producer Alan Moulder. The recording process began in March and lasted until August 1995, with sessions being held in Chicago and Los Angeles. The album was intended to showcase the range of The Smashing Pumpkins, shattering expectations with an all-encompassing tracklist that continues to amaze, even 30 years after its initial release.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was released on October 24, 1995, and The Smashing Pumpkins were cemented as nineties rock icons. This album not only lived up to the expectations set by their sophomore effort but also shattered them like a rock through a window, raising the bar for contemporary rock among their peers. These 28 songs range from distorted, grunge-influenced screeches to dreamy, cinematic orchestrations brimming with poetry. There is only one way to consume an album of this stature: the whole two hours, in one sitting. The fiery smash hit “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” transitions into the slow-burning emotional outpouring on “To Forgive,” with a mesmerizing ease, and the fact that these two moody, radio-ready tunes can sit comfortably next to an edgy piece of experimentation like “Bodies” only begins to tell the story of how Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness became a nineties classic.
The chugging aggression of “An Ode To No One,” the left-field pop excellence of “We Only Come Out At Night,” and the long-standing anthem “1979” bounce between lofty visions and digestible approaches. The Smashing Pumpkins famously employed strenuous recording techniques on their first two albums, but Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness finds the band finding a comfortable chemistry. That sense of community proved an essential component in making this daring album pay off tremendously. The beautifully executed chaos of “Jellybelly” could’ve only been reached with Corgan and guitarist James Iha working on the same page, and imagine a version of “In The Arms of Sleep” without its palpable solace and longing.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 charts, received glowing reviews from NME and the Los Angeles Times, and earned the band seven Grammy nominations. While The Smashing Pumpkins, the second-most-nominated artists of the night, went home with one Grammy for “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” the praise and trophies are only a fraction of what makes The Smashing Pumpkins’ third studio album as impactful as it continues to be. These 28 songs marked a change in rock music, a creative breakthrough that urged their peers to follow their wildest vision, and stands thirty years later as a marble support beam for The Smashing Pumpkins’ longevity.
On November 21, The Smashing Pumpkins will release a 30th anniversary edition of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, featuring live cuts of some of the brightest moments on this tracklist.
