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ALBUM REVIEW: Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist

Smashing Pumpkins
Zeitgeist
Reprise, 2007

The current political and social climate in the United States is creating some pretty interesting art. After all, art is a reflection of the times, so wouldn't the best art reflect a society with real causes to rail against and wars to protest? Maybe that's why Smashing Pumpkins' last two albums were so weak: Billy Corgan just didn't have much to say. There is a feeling of fear and righteous indignation against the injustices of the current administration that pervades Zeitgeist, and it has created some great results.

Simply put, Zeitgeist is the best Smashing Pumpkins album in a decade, which, in rock years, is eternity. It's certainly the best since Melancholy and The Infinite Sadness, and arguably the best since Siamese Dream. To be fair, it doesn't have to work that hard to top Adore or Machina/The Machines of God, but Zeitgeist returns many of the elements that make Smashing Pumpkins an interesting proposition, and abandons much of the pomp and pretension that have tended to weigh their recordings down.

ALBUM REVIEW: OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer

Various Artists
OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer
Stereogum.com, 2007

When Radiohead released OK Computer in 1997, it was hailed as a masterpiece. True, it sags a bit towards the end, and Fitter Happier has everyone getting a workout as they leap for the skip button, but overall it's a subtle, nuanced work, with textures, shadings, and astonishing songwriting.

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Stereogum.com has released a download only compilation called OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer, by a number of esoteric artists that the website champions, such as Slaraffenland, Vampire Weekend, and David Bazan’s Black Cloud.

ALBUM REVIEW: Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Merge Records, 2007

Try telling anybody that Texas is where it’s at, vis-à-vis indie rock, and you will usually be rewarded with a blank, uncomprehending look. It tells of an uncertainty about whether you’re deliberately messing with their head or whether you’re merely some kind of ex-Eastern Bloc tourist trying to gain college cred with whatever weird notions of American culture you picked up on Radio Free Europe. I myself can live with either accusation, because the truth will out. Those who persist in branding Texas as merely a safe-haven for beard-bearing boogie bands and Edgar Winter forget the following indomitable truths: