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Audio CD
Publisher: Virgin Records Us
Limited edition Japanese version of their 2001 'Greatest Hits' collection includes one track unavailable on the US edition, 'Try, Try, Try'. 18 tracks on the first disc and the bonus B-sides & rarities disc carries the same tracks (16) as every other terr
The Smashing Pumpkins' greatest-hits album, Rotten Apples, traces the band's evolution (or devolution, depending on your feelings about the band's radical sonic shift in the mid-'90s) from its early days to its status among the kings of alt rock. For fans of the Pumpkins' beginnings as a tripped-out indie/art rock act, Apples opens with some of the band's strongest material. "Siva" and "Rhinoceros" (from Gish, the Pumpkin's first--and arguably best--album) seamlessly mixed dream pop with noisy goth-rock as prime examples of the Pumpkins' early '90s sound. Apples also showcases three stellar tracks ("Cherub Rock," "Today," and "Disarm") from Siamese Dream, the Pumpkins' breakout album. This disc makes the band's mid-'90s directional swing obvious, though, starting with "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," the aggressive alt rock/alt metal concoction released on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Fans of songs like "Zero," "Tonight, Tonight," and "The Everlasting Gaze" will be happy to know that pretty much every cage-rattling hit made it to this disc, along with the previously unreleased dream pop track "Real Love" and an untitled new track (that sounds a lot like the Siamese Dream-era Pumpkins) to round out the mix. --Jennifer Maerz
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| One of the best bands ever |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This album spans the bands entire career (In 2000 the band split.), and in my opinion one of the greatest examples of a band changing over the course of its history; the second song for example is very mellow and rhythmic, where about just 11 tracks away it starts becoming some-what Gothic. Besides that this album IS excellent and by far the best song on the album is "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", with the chorus line- "Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage".
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| It's All Here EXCEPT for Mayonaise ! |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Brings back some very great memories for me, but left off my favorite Pumpkins tune - Mayonaise!!! Why does it seem like the record companies always leave off one of the best songs on every Greatest Hits album for any band? Nevertheless, a good taste of one of my favorite groups in the 1990's.
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| "Just one man - still a boy, perhaps." |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Whilst frequently grouped with their contemporaries from the Pacific Northwest, the Chicagoan Smashing Pumpkins - both aesthetically and stylistically - never quite integrated into nor aspired to be part of the prevailing Grunge scene of the early-mid 90s. Alluding to their incongruity with regard to the grunge power base and its fans, one commentator aptly noted, "Nirvana were cooler, Soundgarden were heavier and Pearl Jam were sexier."
Although compiling a collection of the best of the Smashing Pumpkins' vast catalogue would appear at first to be a daunting task, the `Greatest Hits' tag guarantees that there are no real shock inclusions or exclusions on Rotten Apples.
The Rotten Apples disc showcases above all else the versatility and ambition of the Smashing Pumpkins and their enigmatic frontman, Billy Corgan. From the psychedelic metal of `Siva', the shoegaze-leanings of `Rhinoceros' and the bastardised synth-pop of `1979' to the orchestral grandeur of `Tonight, Tonight' and the electro-goth of `Ava Adore' and `Eye', the collection runs the gamut of the Pumpkins repertoire, demonstrating an adaptability and unpredictability that dwarfed that of their alt-rock cohorts.
For most Pumpkins fans however, the Judas O disc will be the item of most interest, with 9 tracks previously unavailable and 3 more not commercially available (the tracks taken from the internet-only album MACHINA II [this original `Saturnine' varies from the MACHINA II version, as does `Here's to the Atom Bomb']). Anybody with any familiarity of the band's prodigious non-album output will be well aware of the high quality of their "outtakes" and will be unsurprised by the quality herein. That said however, there is still some great stuff out there that didn't make the cut here.
Seen as something of a companion piece to 1994's b-sides collection Pisces Iscariot - and to a lesser degree, the 1996 Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness (1995) b-sides box set The Aeroplane Flies High - Judas O concentrates principally on tracks taken from both the Adore (1998) and MACHINA (2000) sessions. The beauty of the compilation however, is that it is patently obvious that the reason why most of these tracks are outtakes, demos or b-sides is not particularly because they lack quality but because they simply don't fit the ethos of the aforementioned albums.
"I'm jungle-drummed out man" pants drummer Jimmy Chamberlin at the close of the disc's first track, `Lucky 13' which features a brutal masterclass in percussion from Chamberlin and a ferocious guitar and vocal performance from Corgan. It is indicative of an indulgence and catharsis that the Pumpkins had perhaps not allowed themselves since the MCIS sessions, and there is almost a "shackles-off" feel to many of the tracks, with a face-melting cover of David Essex's `Rock On' being another prime example.
Tracks such as `My Mistake' and the captivating `Waiting' are quite easily identifiable as outtakes from the Adore sessions, as is the closer `Blissed & Gone', (the first verse melody of which is heard on Adore's last track [`17']), yet it is the tracks somewhat atypical to those heard on the albums which fascinate the most, notably the tender acoustic ballads `Sparrow' and `Winterlong' and the desolate dirge-like `Soot & Stars', sitting alongside old favourites like `Set the Ray to Jerry', `Marquis in Spades' and `The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)'.
The set is nicely presented with some characteristically impressive band photos (live, candid and studio) capturing the band at their oddly photogenic best in some weird, wonderful and nightmarish shots. The fact that - disappointingly - there is no prose contained within the set would seem to indicate that Rotten Apples is perhaps more the brainchild of Virgin than Corgan.
In summary, although Billy Corgan's nasal voice has always been a divisive concept (that probably prevented the band from reaching the stratospheric heights of Pearl Jam but helped maintain much of their alternative credibility) there can not be too many impartial listeners left feeling short-changed, with `Cherub Rock', `Today', `Bullet With Butterfly Wings', `1979', `Zero' and `Tonight, Tonight' all being epochal tracks from one of alternative rock's truly seminal bands.
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| Good collection |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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If you like Pumpkins and don't already have all the CD's this will work, till you get them.
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| A really good collection to get into the Pumpkins. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I wanted to listen to The Smashing Pumpkins so I picked this album up, and it succesfully got me RIGHT INT0 this band.
They are now my favourite band of all time and I credit this CD for helping me get to know them.
This album has all of their biggest songs, singles and definitive tracks from The Smashing Pumpkins so its really a good collection.
My favourites being Track #1 right through to #15.
My only real complaint with this collection is the exclusion of "Thirty-Three".
It is one of their best songs released as a single and has no inclusion here!
ITs probably because of the many tracks from their awesome 1995 album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" though..
So I reccomend this album to start off with if you want to get into this band, if not..its a near-perfect greatest hits collection that any Smashing Pumpkins fan should have!
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Siva
Rhinoceros
Drown
Cherub Rock
Today
Disarm
Landslide - The Smashing Pumpkins, Nicks, Stevie
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
1979
Zero
Tonight, Tonight
Eye
Ava Adore
Perfect
The Everlasting Gaze
Stand Inside Your Love
Real Love
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