The album, `Siamese Dream' was ruling the airwaves and MTV with songs like "Disarm", "Today", "Rocket" and even "Mayonaise". I liked the whole album and declared it to be good music. Then came `Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness' and I was instantly attracted to two songs my first listen: "1979" and "Tonight, Tonight". Although Billy Corgan can scream with the rest of the rockers, I prefer his softer voice - it's a unique style of singing that blends well with the band - and I think that's what made `Siamese Dream' such an enjoyable listen.

But you want to know about `Machina: The Machines Of God'. Well after a few listens, I hereby declare this album a worthy buy. Is it a `Siamese Dream' in my opinion? No, but it demonstrates musical growth. The album opens up on a strong note with "Everlasting Gaze", a rock track not unlike "Bullet With Butterfly Wings". Lyrically, "Stand Inside Your Love", is the album's most intense statement with lines like `Who wouldn't be the one you love and live for, who wouldn't stand inside your love and die for?". Sonically, "I of the Mourning" makes for a great listen and so does "Try, Try, Try" and "This Time". The other great rock track on here is "Heavy Metal Machine" with its furious, stomping bass line. One of my favorite songs on this album is "Wound". It has a folk music influence you can really hear when Corgan sings, `Last night I turned around and thought I saw myself turning'...it's a melody that borrows heavily from Gordon Lightfoot's 1970 classic, "If You Could Read My Mind". Despite the similarity, I love the song. My other favorite is "Sacred and Profane" because it is musically, the closest track to `Siamese Dream'. Incidentally, the name of the Pumpkins' tour is `The Sacred and Profane' so it is probably going to be a single.

Lastly, some say the album is too long and yes, there are some tracks that probably did not need to be on here. In my opinion, `Machina' could have ended with "With Every Light". The album cover artwork is mind-boggling to say the least, and warrants further study. What Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins have achieved with this album is artistry to be respected. This isn't necessarily hit music. Rather, `Machina' is an artistic statement by a band, and an artistic statement that I can appreciate - how about you?


incredible   April 24, 2000
 31 out of 40 found this review helpful

the level of musicality that billy corgan reaches with this album is mind boggling. all of the songs are astounding.

Everlasting Gaze- is a treat for old pumpkins fans, since it is slightly reminiscent of tonight tonight and zero.

Raindrops+Sunshowers- rocks like U2. it's one of the best songs on the album.

Stand Inside Your Love - is a pretty song. billy likes to get romantic sometimes.

I of the Mourning - reminds me of the cure, and it probably is my fave song.

Sacred and Profane - isn't one of the best songs, but it still is really cool. the chorus especially.

Try Try Try- picks up where Adore left off. it has soft guitars, soft lyrics, and is softly sung, and is bloody gorgeous.

Heavy Metal Machine - has a great glam-rock crunch to it, but the lyrics aren't the best. it's musically invincible.

This Time - Is surprisingly sad. the lyrics have a desperation to them, and the music is mournful, although it has a fast beat.

The Imploding Voice - has a charm to it. this song is reminiscent of Pissant from Pisces Iscariot. mindless fun.

Glass and the Ghost Children - freaks me out. it's almost ten minutes long, and while most bands who write epics tend to weaken at the end, this song rocks hard and rolls gently. i especially like the spoken part.

Wound - is maybe my least favorite song on the album. that doesn't make it a bad song, but it doesn't do much for me.

The Crying Tree of Mercury - is the strangest oddity on the album. i love how the keyboards and guitar meld into one another

With Every Light - is mellow and dreamy. it definitely floats.

Blue Skies Bring Tears - is an incredibly beautiful song. the lyrics are great too.

The Age of Innocence - may be the strongest song on the album. it changes halfway to a softer bridge, kinda liek parts of Siamese Dream. A great closer.

This album really affected me. i reccomend it to everyone


Everywhere you are - is everywhere you've been   March 22, 2000
 23 out of 24 found this review helpful

Machina / The Machines of God finds the Smashing Pumpkins returning to the familiar territory of beautiful, emotional rock n' roll. Although I personally love Adore and think it stands as a beautiful, artistic album, Machina returns to the Pumpkins old territory, and it is DAMN good. One of the best rock albums I've heard in a long time, in fact.

The album rocks. The opening track, "The Everlasting Gaze", is a stunningly brutal and powerful Pumpkins track, and one of their most straight-ahead rock songs. The spoken word segue in the middle is excellent and unexpected. "Raindrops + Sunshowers" reminds me a little of Adore but more rock-oriented, very nice. "Stand Inside Your Love" is a brilliant, uplifting song. "I of the Mourning" is superb and catchy. "The Sacred and Profane" is beautiful and almost hypnotic. "Try, Try, Try" is slower and more peaceful.

"Heavy Metal Machine" is a firestorm of guitar thunder and fury, yet it remains very melodic and has some truly great lyrics. "This Time" is one of the album's highlights. "The Imploding Voice", from which the title of this review is taken, is one of my favorite songs on the album, and a bit different. "Glass and the Ghost Children" is truly haunting (kind of in the vein of the Pixies "Where is my Mind?"). "Wound" is a bit calmer, very good. "The Crying Tree of Mercury" is also haunting and reminds me of "Tear" from Adore. "With Every Light" is very catchy and a great song. "Blue Skies Bring Tears" is one of the album's oddest songs, being slower and more distorted. "The Age of Innocence" is very very good and has similarities to "1979."

A big improvement here is the amazing drumming of Jimmy Chamberlain, who is one of the best modern rock drummers alive. Also the album often reminded me of My Bloody Valentine (which, by the way, is one of Billy and the other Pumpkins' favorite bands), what with the layered guitar texture, which sometime takes precedence over lyrics.

To close, Machina is an amazing, powerful album and there is no reason why you should not own it.


The Pumpkins (almost) strike gold   April 6, 2004
 20 out of 21 found this review helpful

It's weird and almost kind of sad that an album like Machina got such negative press, if it was rewarded with any press at all. Less than ten years after their first album, they were already considered dinosaurs and were no longer welcome in popular circles at the turn of the millenium.

And as you might have guessed, Machina is an unusal and admirable piece of work. Since Flood is in the producer's chair, Corgan, Iha, and Chamberlain felt up to the task of recapturing their Mellon Collie success. But in fact, Machina takes the ambience of Adore further into a larger sonic territory thereby creating, quite possibly, their most powerful work yet.

It may be hard to believe, but standard album tracks such as Raindrops & Sunshowers, Try Try Try, I of the Mourning, and This Time completely crush the Smashing Pumpkins' past singles in terms of emotional content and sound. Production is Machina's wildcard, and it uses it to its full extent.

But that's not to say that the album's aggressions let up in any way. The Everlasting Gaze is like a big bang, opening the CD with a fuzzy crunch thereby paving the way for the fast paced yet deeply moving opener. And Stand Inside Your Love, one of the Smashing Pumpkins best singles, builds like Bullet with the Butterfly Wings but swallows you with an anthemic chorus making you forget Mellon Collie entirely.

But not all of Machina fits neatly into Corgan and Flood's vision of a perfect sounding album. Heavy Metal Machine almost sounds like a joke as it trudges through bottom-heavy guitar chords and a rediculous chorus. If there were ever a song that overstays its welcome, this would be it. Blue Skies Bring Tears grates on the ears with its slow-burn approach that only brings you to a very peculiar and confusing ending. And the first time I heard The Crying Tree of Mercury, I almost laughed out loud at the sound of the keyboards in the beginning.

Fortunately, Machina ends on a strong note (as most good albums do) with The Age of Innocence. The lyrical content does not suggest it, but the melody and music are the perfect epilogue to a band's career.

With Machina, the good far outweighs the bad any day. Sure it has its shortcomings (so did Mellon Collie), but the strong points on the album should be considered to be on par with the strong points of the Smashing Pumpkins career. Maybe some day is will be realized as such.


machina - not much to be desired.   February 29, 2000
 19 out of 28 found this review helpful

machina - the machines of god is, in my opinion, quite likely the worst pumpkins release to date. the songs are for the most part boring and unmelodic. (and this coming from a die-hard pumpkins fan!) even adore had fairly strong melodies throughout. also, machina was promised to be the pumpkins striking back at the world that scorned them. it was touted to be their new rock and roll anthem. i find this album almost completely devoid of rock, with few exceptions (i.e.-the everlasting gaze, heavy metal machine). the pumpkins seem to have lost their flair for beautiful riff-based songs. listen to siamese dream and then compare with the new machina. the new release has virtually no catchy guitar hooks. i understand the princeple of musical evolution, but i think that we've lost the pumpkins that we'd come to know and love. they've de-volved into something that, quite frankly, i just don't understand or appreciate.