Only CDs Is Sounding Like These # 28: The Smashing Pumpkins, “Pisces Iscariot” (1994)
A new occasional series — CDs are coming back baby! And I’m here for it. BIGTIME! Also, some albums just REALLY suit the format, right
When I fell in love with the Smashing Pumpkins, I fell hard. It was Siamese Dream for me. I wasn’t a day one fan. Siamese Dream was very quickly everywhere, and on the back — I guess — of Nirvana and Pearl Jam and other such things. A whole new chance to experience music out and away from the albums my older brother and parents recommended. They taught me well — of course. Most of the music I first heard through them I still love, on at least some level.
But it was nice to feel free. To be exploring out and away from Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan and all of the others.
Via The Trip, I heard Rhinoceros — and went back to the band’s first album, Gish. But then what? There was always that long wait between albums — there still is. Enter Pisces Iscariot, a collection of B-sides, and leftovers. The bits that didn’t fit. These compilations are always about, and usually interesting, especially to fans (which is who they are for). But sometimes you buy them, file them after a few listens and, really, that is that.
Pisces was different. It was instantly interesting, but more than that, the songs were shining; some better than on the albums, some better with each listen, not just leftover curios.
I played Plume in a band with friends in my final year of high school. Well, we gave it an honest attempt. I loved Blew Away, written by James Iha, rather than Billy Corgan. It was like when you found one of the great George Harrison songs on a Beatles record, it was like when Lee Ranaldo took the lead on a Sonic Youth song; it was like when you found a short story with a different tone completely from a writer you thought you had pegged.
Tantalisingly, some of the songs were outtakes from Siamese Dream. They might even have been ‘better’, they obviously just didn’t quite fit. That was something to consider when you listened not only to this, but back to the album that brought the band all the attention.
The other thing I absolutely adore about this album — and I think it is my favourite Pumpkins ‘album’ with Adore a close second — is the decision to cover Landslide by Fleetwood Mac. To anyone discovering the album today, they might think it a cash-in, a cynical cover, a move. But to my ears, hearing this brand new 30 years ago, this took absolute balls. I grew up a Fleetwood Mac fan, am indeed a lifer, borderline mouth-breather when it comes to any discussion of them, but I have not lost the perspective that covering a Fleetwood Mac song in the early/mid 90s was a risk. It told the world only one thing: You Were A Fan.
It wasn’t until The Dance in 1997 that Fleetwood Mac moved into full legacy mode and became undeniable. In 1994/5, they were a band consisting of rhythm section only, playing state fairs and opening for other bands — their three songwriters all in solo territory, a couple of stand-ins doing their very best, but it was a fool’s errand, delivering on a meaningless assignment.
So to hear Billy cover Landslide is big. And one of the main criticisms of Corgan/Pumpkins across the years, is his voice. The whine wasn’t quite so ludicrous back then, but still it was a reach for him to even want to attempt something from peak-Stevie Nicks. He nails the assignment. It is one of those wonderful examples of a songwriter praising another songwriter: Picking a song written by someone else to showcase their own love of composition. I like thinking about that whenever I hear this album.
And I have loved reconnecting with the Pumpkins more recently. I left their albums for anyone else, many years back. An occasional (annual) revisit for nostalgia only. But the first four or five all speak to me in some way, and the first couple hit hard for the most part. However it’s Adore and Pisces were they weren’t locked in a production-mire to Be The Sound of the Day. Those are the moments when we hear Billy taking pause. And that’s why they are better.
Pisces just turned 30 — a couple of months ago. It has held up so remarkably well.
