Review Summary: Nothing amazing, but still underrated
After all the success of the unforgettable albums 'Siamese Dream' and 'Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness', the egocentric Billy Corgan insisted on creating the more electronic influenced 'Adore' which not surprisingly alienated most people from checking out 'Machina: The Machines Of God' which is a shame because it's a pretty good album. With most people not giving the first Machina album a chance it's even it's no wonder that no one checked out the second half 'Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music' which is their loss because it's a great album and free.
Machina II marked the return of two of The Smashing Pumpkins most important assets, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and the fuzzy half a step tuned down distorted guitars which were both nonexistent in the 'Adore' album. Machina II is still pretty heavy on the synthesizers but it seems to work with a lot of tracks and takes your mind off Billy's nasally singing voice and helps keep the rhythm section alive due to the lack of creative bass in alot of the songs. With Billy and James both being talented guitarists and the return of distortion to guitars, you'd expect an album full of new exciting riffs and creative power chord progressions which is the case for about 1/3 of the tracks but the rest is pretty much acoustic which isn't bad and most actually sounding similar to stuff you would hear on the second disc of Mellon Collie.
Machina II is mostly full of great songs with few fillers, but what do you expect from a free album full of songs which didn't make the first Machina. (I'm only reviewing the actual album, not the three Ep's that go along with it)
The one song your going to remember from Machina II will be 'Heres To The Atom Bomb'. It's not any breaking any new ground for the Smashing Pumpkins but has the same kind of vibe you get from listening to '1979', simple guitars, basic drum beat and a small touch of keyboard in the background so I recommend you check it out before you find your way into the rest of the album. Most tracks took me a few listens before I could appreciate them but the album is pieced together from a lot of good songs. Like most Smashing Pumpkins albums theres your straight up alternative rock songs such as 'Cash Car Star' and 'Dross' then theres your slower acoustic songs like 'Here's To The Atom Bomb' and 'Go' (Sung by James Iha,) then like always Billy's experimental long track which comes in the form of 'In My Body' which actually worked out for the better compared to others off previous albums like 'We Only Come Out At Night'. The songs aren't amazingly creative when it comes to the music or lyrics or anything but still have charm to them and would be appreciated by any Smashing Pumpkins fan or anyone who gives them a decent listen.
So far I've praised the album and sounded really fan boyish but the album has alot of faults. Songs such as 'Blue Skies Bring Tears' and 'White Spider' are really embarrassing and then theres moments in many of songs where the lyrics make you want to spew and question how Billy ever wrote a song like 'Disarm'. The more heavy songs all end up sounding very similar and the lead work is very basic and uninspired. Most of the tracks Billy just has to sing in he's constipated whiny voice which works sometimes but mostly ends up ruining good songs. The bass is light and elementary which is a shame because they should have cut the keyboards and done a bit more with the bass, okay I think that's enough fault finding in this album.
Most people over look this album and just assume after 'Adore' The Smashing Pumpkins were done, but Machina I & II were both great and I admit they didn't live up to the greatness of 'Siamese Dream' or 'Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness' but still produced some great songs. This was the album where Billy Corgan finally admitted he's full of *** (Dross 'You say I'm empty but we all know I'm full of ***') this is also a album where Billy gave James a song which is always a rare treat. So If you liked 'Mellon Collie' or 'Adore' really suggest downloading this, it's free and you might find a few good songs.
Recommended Tracks:
. Heres To The Atom Bomb
. In My Body
. Go
. Let Me Give The World To You
