Aghori Mhori Mei (studio album) by The Smashing Pumpkins

By default, this is probably the best Pumpkins album since the '90s. It goes without saying that nothing they've made in this century has not and could not live up to their magical Gish-Siamese-Mellon Collie run. But at the very least, Aghori Mhori Mei recaptures a little of that mid '90s sound, from the guitar tones to Corgan's voice, which thankfully a little lower in the mix than the last couple of releases. A nice little rebound.

From paladisiac 08/08/2024 20:12

The Smashing Pumpkins experienced a breath of new life with "Shiny and Oh So Bright", a concise album with purpose and tuneful vision, headed by the very good track "silvery sometimes (ghosts)". The entire album wasn't perfect, even for an artist 20 years past their prime, but it was something of a rebirth. The Pumpkins had kind of floundered beginning with Machina II, without the same bite and songwriting precision that could tickle your heart or rock your ass as they could between Siamese Dream and Adore. But "Shiny...Vol. 1" brought them back to some sort of relevance -- I could easily imagine a couple of those tracks on heavy radio (or streaming) rotation.

Since then, they've fallen back into overindulgence and self-gratification, with less regard for their audience, bringing more of what they believe their audience thinks the smashing pumpkins sounds like and less innovation. Yes, there have been highlights post-"Shiny". "Cyr" is a great rocking, no-nonsense track. "Beguiled" was one of 3 standouts on their THIRTY THREE track ATUM album. Let's understand this: "Thirty Three" is one of their classically great songs, while most of those 33 ATUM tracks were mediocre.

Which brings us to "Aghori Mhori Mei", an album with no advance single, and with good reason, this time they bring all ho-hum, no personality tracks. All songs, drenched in goth-rock guitar and Corgan's vocal whine-drone melodrama, are technically capable and are better than what other old-timey artists from that time period could produce (looking at you, Blink-182), but given the potential cracked open by "Shiny...Vol.1", this album is a flat disappointment. Yes, there are some rippin' riffs on "Aghori", but there isn't much more here to justify this album's existence. After 3 subsequent albums each with further diminishing returns, culminating with the unnecessary "Aghori", they've completely erased the good will of a possible SP renaissance.