Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins
Released	October 24, 1995
Recorded	March–August 1995 at Pumpkinland, Sadlands, Bugg Studios, Chicago Recording Company; The Village Recorder
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	121:50
Label	Virgin
Producer	Alan Moulder, Billy Corgan, Flood
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Entertainment Weekly (A) link Pitchfork Media (6.8/10) link Robert Christgau link Rolling Stone link The New York Times link Time link
The Smashing Pumpkins chronology
Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) Adore (1998)
Singles from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" Released: October 1995 "1979" Released: January 23, 1996 "Zero" Released: April 23, 1996 "Tonight, Tonight" Released: April 15, 1996 "Thirty-Three" Released: November 11, 1996

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is the third album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released October 24, 1995, on Virgin Records. Produced by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan with Flood and Alan Moulder, the twenty-eight-track album was released as a two-disc CD and triple LP. The album features a wide array of styles, as well as greater musical input from bassist D'arcy Wretzky and second guitarist James Iha.

Led by the single “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” the record debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, the first and only such occurrence for the group. The album spawned four more singles—“1979”; “Zero”; “Tonight, Tonight”; and “Thirty-Three”—over the course of 1996, and has been certified nine times platinum by the RIAA. Praised by critics for its ambition and scope, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness earned the band seven Grammy Award nominations in 1997.

Recording and production

After the thirteen-month tour in support of The Smashing Pumpkins' second album Siamese Dream (1993), Billy Corgan immediately began writing songs for the band's next record.^[1] From the outset, the band intended the new record to be a double album. Corgan said, "We almost had enough material to make Siamese Dream a double album. With this new album, I really liked the notion that we would create a wider scope in which to put other kinds of material we were writing."^[2] Corgan felt that the band's musical approach was running its course, and wanted the band to approach the album as if it were its last.^[3] Corgan described the album at the time to the music press as "The Wall for Generation X", a comparison with Pink Floyd's 1979 two-LP concept album.^[4]

The band decided to forgo working with Butch Vig, who had produced the group's previous albums, and selected Flood and Alan Moulder as co-producers. Corgan explained, "To be completely honest, I think it was a situation where we'd become so close to Butch that it started to work to our disadvantage... I just felt we had to force the situation, sonically, and take ourselves out of normal Pumpkin recording mode. I didn't want to repeat past Pumpkin work."^[2]

Flood immediately pushed the band to change its recording practices. Corgan later said, "Flood felt like the band he would see live wasn't really captured on record".^[5] In April 1995, the band began recording in a rehearsal space, instead of entering the studio straight away.^[6] At these sessions, the band recorded rough rhythm tracks with Flood. Originally designed to create a rough draft for the record, the rehearsal space sessions ended up yielding much of the new album's rhythm section parts.^[1] Flood also insisted the band set aside time each day devoted to jamming or songwriting, practices the band had never engaged in before during recording sessions. Corgan said, "Working like that kept the whole process very interesting—kept it from becoming a grind."^[2]

Corgan sought to eliminate the tension that permeated the Siamese Dream recording sessions. Corgan said regarding the problems with recording Siamese Dream, "[T]o me, the biggest offender was the insidious amounts of time that everyone spends waiting for guitar parts to be overdubbed. There were literally weeks where no one had anything to do but sit and wait." The band decided to counter idleness by using two recording rooms at the same time. This tactic allowed Corgan to work on vocals and song arrangements while recording was done in the other.^[2] During these sessions, Flood and Corgan would work in one room as Moulder, guitarist James Iha, and bassist D'arcy Wretzky worked in a second.^[5] Iha and Wretzky had a much greater role in the recording of the album, unlike the prior albums where Corgan was rumored to have recorded all the bass and guitar parts himself.^[7] James Iha commented about the recording sessions,

The big change is that Billy is not being the big 'I do this-I do that.' It's much better. The band arranged a lot of songs for this record, and the song writing process was organic. The circumstances of the last record and the way that we worked was really bad.^[8]

Following the rehearsal space sessions, the band recorded overdubs at the Chicago Recording Company.^[1] Pro Tools was used for recording guitar overdubs as well as for post-production electronic looping and sampling.^[5][9] Wretzky also recorded numerous backup vocal parts, but all were cut except the one recorded for "Beautiful".^[10] When the recording sessions concluded, the band had 57 completed songs which were up for contention to be included on Mellon Collie.^[11] The album was going to have 32 songs, but this was cut back to 28 songs.^[12]

Music

	"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" One of the album's more aggressive songs, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" was the first single from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness "1979" "1979" from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
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Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is a loose concept album, with the songs intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death.^[8] Billy Corgan has said that the album is based on "the human condition of mortal sorrow".^[13] Corgan aimed the album's message at people aged 14 to 24 years, hoping "to sum up all the things I felt as a youth but was never able to voice articulately."^[1] He summed up by stating, "I'm waving goodbye to me in the rear view mirror, tying a knot around my youth and putting it under the bed."^[1]

The sprawling nature of the album means that it utilizes several different diverse styles amongst the songs, contrasting what some critics felt was the "one dimensional flavor" of the previous two albums.^[1] A much wider variety of instrumentation is used, such as piano ("Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"), synthesizers and drum loops ("1979"), a live orchestra ("Tonight, Tonight"), MIDI ("Beautiful"), and even salt shakers and scissors ("Cupid de Locke").^[1][5]

All guitars on the album were tuned down a half-step in order to "make the music a little lower", according to Corgan. On some songs, like "Jellybelly", the first string was tuned down an additional whole step to C#(referred to by Corgan as "the 'grunge tuning'"). There was a greater variety to the number of guitar overdubs utilized than on previous albums. Iha said, "[I]n the past, everything had to be overdubbed and layered—guitar overkill. That wasn't really the train of thought this time, although we did that too."^[2] "To Forgive" consists of only one live guitar take, while "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" contains approximately 70 guitar tracks.^[5] The various sections of "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” were recorded at various times, with different instruments and recording setups, and were digitally composited in Pro Tools.^[5] Corgan and Iha shared soloing duties; Iha estimated that the guitar solo duties were divided "half and half" on the record.^[2]

All but two songs on the album were written solely by Corgan. The closing track from the first disc, "Take Me Down", was written and sung by Iha, while the album's final track, "Farewell and Goodnight", was cowritten by Corgan and Iha, and features lead vocals by all four band members. Iha wrote additional songs during the making of the album, but they did not make the final cut. Corgan said in a 1995 Rolling Stone interview, "[T]here are some B sides that James did that are really good. They just don't fit in the context of the album. And part of me feels bad. But over the seven years we've been together, the least uptight part of the band has been the music."^[3]

Release and reception

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was released on October 24, 1995. The following week, Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, an unusual feat for a double-disc album that cost over US$20.^[14] The RIAA has certified the album as having sold 9.8 million copies in the United States.^[15]

Christopher John Farley of Time called the album "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet". Farley wrote, "One gets the feeling that the band [. . .] charged ahead on gut instincts; the sheer scope of the album (28 songs) didn't allow for second-guessing or contrivance."^[16] Time selected Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as the best album of the year in its year-end "Best of 1995" list.^[17] Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A rating; reviewer David Browne praised the group's ambition and wrote, "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is more than just the work of a tortured, finicky pop obsessive. Corgan presents himself as one of the last true believers: someone for whom spewing out this much music results in some sort of high art for the ages. He doesn't seem concerned with persistent alterna-rock questions of 'selling out,' and good for him: He's aiming for something bigger and all-conquering."^[18] Rolling Stone gave the album three out of five stars. Reviewer Jim DeRogatis praised the album as "one of the rare epic rock releases whose bulk is justified in the grooves". The writer stated that the album's main flaw was Corgan's lyrics, describing the songwriter as "wallowing in his own misery and grousing about everyone and everything not meeting his expectations." While DeRogatis contended that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness "may even match The Wall in its sonic accomplishments", he argued that Corgan's lyrics lacked in comparison.^[19] Mojo reviewer Ben Edmunds also praised the music while criticizing Corgan's lyrics. Edmunds wrote, "[Corgan's] lyrics appear to be the repository for the worst aspects of his most treasured influences. He writes with a heavy metal aptitude for wordplay and an inflated prog-rock conviction of its worth, a deadening combination. But there's a sliver of distance in his rage-mongering now that comments as well as expresses.^[20]

The album spawned five singles. While Corgan considered issuing "Jellybelly" as the album's first single, he told Chart it was passed over in favor of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" because "'Bullet's one of those songs where, you know, it's easy to sing along to and [he affects a drawl] ya gotta sell them records."^[21] "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" was The Smashing Pumpkins' first single to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 22. "1979", the album's second single, charted at number 12, becoming the band's highest-charting American hit.^[22] The "Zero" single was released as an EP with six b-sides. All three of these singles were certified gold by the RIAA.^[23] "Tonight, Tonight" and "Thirty-Three", the album's fourth and final singles, reached number 36 and number 39 on the Billboard charts, respectively.^[22] While it was not commercially released as a single, the song "Muzzle" reached number eight on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and number ten on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.^[22]

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness earned The Smashing Pumpkins nominations in seven categories at the 1997 Grammy Awards, the second-highest number of nominations that year.^[24] The group was nominated for Album of the Year, Record of the Year ("1979"), Best Alternative Music Performance, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal ("1979"), Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), Best Pop Instrumental Performance ("Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness") and Best Music Video, Short Form ("Tonight, Tonight") at the 1997 Grammy Awards. The band won a single award, for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"; it was the group's first.^[25] Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness also ranked at number 14 on the 1995 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll.^[26]

Track listing

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was intended as a two-record set. The CD and cassette versions of the album are divided into two discs, entitled Dawn to Dusk and Twilight to Starlight. The vinyl version, however, is divided into three discs with six sides. The vinyl release also features two bonus songs ("Tonite Reprise" and "Infinite Sadness"), and a completely different track order.

All songs written by Billy Corgan, except where noted.

Chart positions and sales certifications

Personnel

• Billy Corgan – lead vocal, guitar, piano, producer, mixer, string arrangement on "Tonight, Tonight", art direction and design
• James Iha – guitar, additional credits for "Take Me Down" and "Farewell and Goodnight": vocals, mixing and additional production
• D'arcy Wretzky – bass, vocals on "Beautiful" and "Farewell and Goodnight"
• Jimmy Chamberlin – drums, vocals on "Farewell and Goodnight"
• Flood – producer, mixer
• Alan Moulder – producer, mixer
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra – orchestra in "Tonight, Tonight"
• Audrey Riley – string arrangement on "Tonight, Tonight"
• Greg Leisz – pedal and lap steel guitar on "Take Me Down"
• Chris Shepard – recording
• Claudine Pontier – recording assistance
• Dave Kresl – string recording assistance
• Barry Goldberg – additional vocal recording, mixing assistance
• Howie Weinberg – mastering
• Frank Olinsky – art direction and design
• John Craig – illustration
• Andrea Giacobbe – photograph
• Jeff Moleski – technical assistance
• Russ Spice – technical assistance
• Tim "Gooch" Lougee – technical assistance
• Adam Green – technical assistance
• Roger Carpenter – technical assistance
• Guitar Dave Mannet – technical assistance

References

• di Perna, Alan. "Zero Worship". Guitar World. December 1995.

Footnotes