If you've read this blog in ascending order (oldest entry to latest), this one may surprise you a little, and yes, I thought long and hard about it and eventually decided there was no way I could compile a blog made up of albums that have stayed with me over the years and leave this one off. If you are reading this in descending order, you'll probably understand why I debated on whether I should include this later on. And something similar will happen with another entry, as you will also see later.
So, the year was 1996 again (significant to me for music, it would seem). It was around the start of the summer. I'd not yet dropped out of university (I wouldn't make that decision for a couple of months), and I was still pretty much a metaller at this point. Despite being a fan of the Pumpkins beforehand, once my metal years hit, I never really paid them any attention whatsoever, but that changed with this new guy who started hanging about with my friends and I. If you're reading this in ascending order, then yes, this is the same guy from this entry.
Anyway, one evening, we went out to a rock night in town. This guy invited us all back to his place after we left the club; there was about 4 or 5 of us, and we sat there getting stoned and listening to music. At some point, he suggested putting on 'Mellon Collie'. We were all a little skeptical at first, but he just asked us to give it a go. So there we were, buzzed from the alcohol and the weed, listening to a band I hadn't even thought about in nearly 3 years. I found myself being very impressed with what I heard, particularly with the way their sound had evolved from 'Siamese Dream' (and 'Gish' before that); it was definitely the same band, but their sound was more dynamic and even futuristic in places ('Love' at the time sounded like it came from the year 3000).
The tired old cliche about music sounding better when you're high certainly rang true that evening; as I sat splayed on the couch, my mind was transported to the planet this music inhabited. In this state, the nautical, dreamlike 'Porcelina of the Vast Oceans' that closes the first disc sounded otherworldly. By the start of the second CD, everyone else had more or less fallen asleep so I pretty much listened to it myself. Again, I could not help but be impressed by the variety of moods and sounds that spanned the album: blissful, soothing songs gave way to all out rockers that gave way to quirky electro-pop, that gave way to haunting, ethereal soundscapes. This staggeringly diverse, yet utterly consistent mix opened my eyes to what alternative rock in particular could be and showed me just how important eclecticism is. For that reason, I consider this album instrumental in shaping the diverse tastes I have today. Through the metal years that preceded this revelatory experience, I'd learned to betray my former inclinations by becoming myopic, and considered that a credit to how "metal" I was. However, this is where that callowness began to dissolve and was the start of a huge shift in my musical consciousness, up there with the first time I heard chip music on my Commodore 64 as a kid (as briefly mentioned in the intro). And when I wasn't listening to the music, I was poring over the elaborate and enigmatic artwork that lined the CD or reading the lyrics. I was utterly captivated.
Two albums later, the Pumpkins would begin a steady, ignominious fall from grace from which they would never recover. To this day, the shuffling zombie that masquerades as this once great band only serves to cheapen its legacy, with Billy Corgan himself become harder to like as time goes on.
Nevertheless, I cannot begin to articulate the effect this masterpiece of a record had, somehow influencing everything I went on to do and become, both consciously or unconsciously. Without a doubt, its' sounds well and truly made me.
No comments:
Post a Comment