Tarantula

May 21, 2007 9:41 AM

hanks to an anonymous tagboard poster, I learned that the first new Smashing Pumpkins song in about seven years is available for download on iTunes today. So I downloaded, and I'm currently listening to it for the first time.

My first reaction: it's a punk song. The rhythm guitar part sounds pretty simple, and it doesn't involve a riff; it's just a few chords. The lead work is also minimal and, frankly, unimpressive for a guitarist of Billy Corgan's caliber. There's also a fair amount of palm muting. The palm muting actually has the strange effect of making some of the parts of the song sound almost as if they're from a metal song, especially during some of the instrumental breaks.

The other really strange thing is that Billy's voice is very high in the mix. That's not a problem per se, since, unlike some people, I think he's got a good voice. But it does have the strange effect of making it sound like his voice is somehow disconnected from the rest of the music. It's also strange that, during the part where there are harmony vocals, it's just Billy, rather than Billy, James, and D'arcy. I'm still really sad that they're not involved in the reformed Pumpkins.

The little breakdown portion where the song gets a little quieter is classic Smashing Pumpkins; in fact, it might be too classic--it almost comes across as an attempt to remind people that the Pumpkins were all about awesome loud-quiet-loud dynamics.

Overall, this is an ok song--I gave it three out of five stars in iTunes. My hope is that this is not the best song on the new album because, if it is, then the new album is going to be a bit of a disappointment. Actually, "disappointment" probably isn't the right work for it because I wasn't expecting much to begin with. Still, with the Pumpkins back together (or, well, at least half of them), the chances of them coming to a nearby town (they're from Chicago, after all) are pretty high. And I'm excited for that, at least.

1 Comments

Santi said:

I'm afraid I must agree with you. Tarantula just didn't really do it for me, and I too hope the album is better than that but I am not too optimistic. Billy Corgan and crew are playing for like two weeks straight in San Francisco though, so I may have to try and catch that :)

And a belated congratulations on graduating! Henceforth I shall refer to you as Jack McCoy... or Casey Novak if you prefer.

May 24, 2007 12:04 PM

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