Zeitgeist is a great album.
No, it doesn't have the depth of Mellon Collie, the dynamic flow in emotion that Siamese Dream has or the bold and experimental approach that Machina has, but it's great in its simplicity.
A lot of fans bitched about all the post-Mellon Collie Pumpkins being too soft or different. Zeitgeist, I guess, is a response to that. To me it's just Billy and Jimmy saying "let's just make a rock album," and Zeitgeist is the result.
It's a strong album. Not every track is amazing, but overall I think it makes good progress for the Pumpkins. Songs like Tarantula, United States and Bleeding the Orchid are very much reminiscent of early Pumpkins, while still heading in a new direction for the band.
Each track on the album is strong in its own right, however the less memorable tracks are probably the straight forward rock ones (i.e. 7 Shades of Black and Come On (Let's Go)).
Overall Zeitgeist is a good album. Not amazing, not groundbreaking, but it's good. You can't expect a band to come back from a seven-year hiatus to make something like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness again straight away. If you just want a straight forward awesome rock album by the Smashing Pumpkins, then this is probably the right album to listen to. |
