THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
"Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"
Virgin
* * * 1/2
"I'm running out of sound," sings Billy Corgan, seemingly determined to display every one he can think of during this sprawling swan song for the Pumpkins as we know them. "And I am changing, changing," he adds, returning to one of the themes that unify the nearly two hours of music on the two-CD set.
To provide a full context for his restless farewell, Corgan creates a gallery of the things he disdains, becoming a punk, a death-rock nihilist, a drifting glam-rocker, an industrial-rock ranter, et al. His strangled sneer is made for mocking, and he's relentless in these denunciations.
