The music world of 1995 seems like a strange and distant land.
Key points:
- American alt-rock band The Smashing Pumpkins released its third album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, in 1995
- One of the few successful double albums of the era, Mellon Collie is seen as a landmark in alternative music
The album debuted at number 1 in Australia and stayed in the top 50 for 73 weeks
CDs ruled supreme, a fledgling internet was yet to simultaneously democratise the industry and short-change artists, and the ARIA charts were a mix of men with loud guitars (Green Day, Live, Silverchair) and women with big voices (Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Tina Arena).
On the guitar side of the musical equation, bands walked a fine line between being successful and being ambivalent about said success, all the while pretending they didn't actually want to be successful.
Alternative music in the '90s was largely about looking like you weren't trying too hard or didn't care too much — ego was definitely a dirty word.
Into this landscape stomped Chicago band The Smashing Pumpkins and their monolithic double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
Released on October 23, 1995 in the US and a week later in Australia, it was a towering work of audacious ambition unlike anything else on the scene.
Definitely not devoid of ego or talent, frontman Billy Corgan not only had the gall to release 28 songs at once, but he dared to aim for posterity and acclaim, describing the album to the music press as The Wall for Generation X, a reference to Pink Floyd's equally titanic double album of 1979.
The anointed "voice of a generation" Kurt Cobain had died 18 months earlier — Corgan, it seemed, was actively positioning himself as heir to the throne.
'The impossible is possible tonight'
Mellon Collie bursts at the seams with light and shade, ranging from uplifting symphonic pop to grinding metal — the distorted screams of Tales Of A Scorched Earth share a disc with the acoustic finger-picking of Stumbleine, while the fuzzed-out cynicism of Love backs onto the watery harps of Cupid de Locke.
But unlike The Wall, there was no overarching concept — The Smashing Pumpkins were simply trying "to make a record that only teenagers could love", as music tastemakers Pitchfork put it in 2012.
Like much of the alternative music of the era, it tapped into the confusions and questions of youth, from the angst of Bullet With Butterfly Wings' rallying cry, "despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage", to Tonight Tonight's hopeful plea that the "impossible is possible".
The songs were written in the wake of a year of touring the band's breakthrough second album Siamese Dream, which spent an amazing 72 weeks on the ARIA charts.
Aside from a handful of contributions from guitarist James Iha, this was largely the work of band autocrat Corgan, whose songwriting blossomed in an impossibly fertile patch. The Pumpkins recorded more than 50 songs and demoed close to 100 for Mellon Collie.
Critics raved and fans lapped it up.
The band was nominated for seven Grammys, and in Australia four of Mellon Collie's five singles appeared in triple j's Hottest 100, including Bullet With Butterfly Wings, at number 2 in 1995.
The album debuted at number 1 in Australia and the US, and it was the 80th biggest selling album of the '90s in the US, with current sales figures estimating more than 10 million units sold.
It spent a remarkable 73 weeks in the Aussie charts, one more week than Siamese Dream managed — not bad for an album that sold at a much higher price than other CDs due to it being a double album.
'Wanna go for a ride?'
Mellon Collie's impact also rippled through the music scene, influencing countless musicians in rehearsal rooms and those yet to pick up an instrument.
Among them were the members of Adelaide band The Superjesus, whose early releases drew comparisons with the Pumpkins from music critics.
"It's fair to say they were an influence," bass player Stuart Rudd said.
"I can hear it (in our early music).
"[The Pumpkins] were pretty pivotal in shaping not just my bass playing, but my songwriting in general."
Rudd got into the band when he was sent a copy of The Smashing Pumpkins' debut album Gish from relatives living in the US, and was up the front of the mosh pit when they played the Adelaide Big Day Out to a small crowd in 1994 — a festival The Superjesus would play just two years later.
He remembers being impressed by Mellon Collie's scope, and its progression from Siamese Dream.
"The first thing that struck me was 'wow, how many on songs are on it?'" he laughed.
"It was massive at the time, bringing out a double album — they were taking a bit more of a risk.
"It was a journey to listen through the whole thing — if you were taking it to a party you had to sit down and listen to the whole thing."
Even across 28 songs, the quality rarely wavered, he said.
"The songcraft was better (than Siamese Dream)," Rudd said.
"They're just good songs, well written — (Corgan) had really honed his skills.
"Prior to us talking, I had actually gone back and started listening to it; in fact, I was talking to (bandmate Sarah) McLeod about it recently and said, 'go and have a listen to that album again because it's such a great album'."
'Lost inside the dreams of teen machines'
It was a similar story in Violet Town, in north-eastern Victoria, where future Killing Heidi frontwoman Ella Hooper discovered The Smashing Pumpkins as primary school kid glued to ABC's Rage.
For Hooper, Mellon Collie arrived at a pivotal time in her life.
"My brother and I were huge fans and had devoured every nook and cranny of Siamese Dream," she said.
"And Mellon Collie's release perfectly coincided with my entry into high school, falling in infatuated love with my first boyfriend (also a deep Pumpkins tragic) and starting Killing Heidi."
She said she listened to the record "daily" at that time, and the album "absolutely did" influence Killing Heidi's sound and songwriting — to the point where Hooper wore a Zero t-shirt at Killing Heidi's first gig.
"I can hear a distinct wanna-be Billy Corgan tone to my voice in our early music," Hooper said.
"We definitely referenced their full, soft-hard-soft sound and, probably somewhat clumsily, their favourite themes of disaffection, abandonment and high love/loss drama.
"I so admire the songwriting and just... the gusto.
"I loved the audacity of a double album, which even more amazingly — in my opinion — doesn't lose itself in endless prog jams and unnecessary additions in the way that many double albums do."
'Take me down to the underground'
Melbourne band Motor Ace also wore their Pumpkins influence proudly — the track Siamese on their debut album has a "subconscious" Pumpkin flavour, drummer Damo Costin admitted.
Costin recalled listening to Siamese Dream in high school — headphones hidden up his sleeve, head pressed against his hand to escape teacher detection — and then being blown away by Mellon Collie.
"I don't think there were any other bands of that size making double records — it was just insanely crazy," he said.
"Look at the amount of music — the outpouring of songs is just insane, from almost-metal to pop-folk sorta songs and atmospheric soundscapes."
Costin, particularly inspired by jazz-influenced drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, dived headlong into the Pumpkins, catching them at the Gold Coast Big Day Out in 1994 and again on the Mellon Collie tour when it reached Melbourne a couple of years later.
He said he still holds Mellon Collie in high regard.
"Listening back to it last night, it still sounds amazing," Costin said.
"I don't think it's aged — I know it sounds crazy to say that, but ... it's held up really well.
"It is an acquired taste of sorts, but ... they pulled off a double record at the height of their career and it did better than their most well-known record (Siamese Dream)."
'My life has been extraordinary'
The Smashing Pumpkins broke up in 2000 before Corgan revived the name in 2006, and the group has rolled on to the present day with an oft-changing line-up and an ever-shifting sound built around Corgan's distinctive voice and ceaseless creativity.
Sadly, it means they've shed a lot of fans along the way, making Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness a line-in-the-sand in the band's career.
"Yes, they lost me," Hooper admitted.
"I back their right to change, evolve and experiment, but in music you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.
"For me, song-wise, they never scaled these heights again.
"That's my taste talking, though — as I get older I like more and more old-fashioned sounding music, and the Pumpkins got more and more futuristic.
"Still, power to them."
Similarly, Costin dropped off the Pumpkins bandwagon after Mellon Collie, giving the 1998 follow-up Adore a miss — its electronic-infused gothic pop-rock too much of a left turn for many fans.
But Mellon Collie has assured the band's legacy, he said.
"They followed through in the jetstream (of the Seattle grunge scene) but they were way more interesting in terms of their output, because they weren't just a standard rock band with the Seattle tinge," Costin said.
"Looking back at (Mellon Collie), you go 'wow, these guys were in their own kind of universe' — (they) don't sound like any of those other bands, like Alice In Chains or Pearl Jam.
"They had a much greater ability to sound soft and beautiful and then heavy metal, all in the space of (a few) songs.
"(Mellon Collie) is a massive landmark of sonic ability... and Billy Corgan's ego."
