Zeitgeist: Part 2

So now that it's been a couple of weeks, I thought I'd write what I think about Zeitgeist. Honestly, I listened to it probably twice and haven't gone back to it since. It's a weird album to listen to because the music style is so old. Unless you've been listening to Smashing Pumpkins or Nirvana lately, it's definitely nostalgic to hear the heavy distortion and feedback that was so big in early 90's grunge. The part that made it hard for me to get next to was that the general sound feels like an old Smashing Pumpkins album, but its a new song so it's not familiar.

Compared to other Smashing Pumpkins albums, I'd say Zeitgeist is closest to Siamese Dream in music style. The guitar style is similar, but I just don't like it as much. I'd say this album is better than Machina and Adore, but not as good as either Siamese Dream or Melon Collie.

Part of my problem with this album is that I hoped it would be something new from one of my favorite old bands. Unfortunately, I felt like it sounded like the same old thing. It just didn't seem like there was any growth in the past 7 years. Siamese Dream came out around the same time as Blood Sugar Sex Magic. However, if you listen to RHCP's latest album Stadium Arcadium it's miles apart from their classic album (in a good way), while Smashing Pumpkins' new stuff is only distinguishable from their old in that the guitar isn't quite as good anymore.

Overall, I kind of feel like the band dialed this album in. Billy Corgan is smart enough to know that all of us in high school when they were big have money now and will buy any new CD with Smashing Pumpkins written on the front of it. I think Zeitgeist sort of took advantage of that.
It has a couple of catchy songs, but as an album it's just ok.