Why?: It's impossible to describe just how huge a Smashing Pumpkins fan I was from 1995-1998. Enormous. Everything they did until that date was perfect in my mind. Adore killed it. I never bought it, I hated it so. My wife did though, and here it is in our collection...
Tell me more!:
I spent a lot of money collecting Smashing Pumpkins at the time... I'm surprised I never bought Adore. I don't think I even had it on tape. I collected SP bootlegs and had a few of the songs live, but it seems I really did draw a line and stop listening to the band after this album.
I've since grown to love the band again, the last album (Oceania) is great, so I came to listening to this again with fresh enthusiastic ears.
And it starts well. "To Shelia", "Ava Adore" and "Perfect" are all great songs. I know from listening to bootlegs that Ava Adore is much better live, with the electronic parts played on a distorted guitar, but the recorded version is pretty good.
Unfortunately the album just falls apart after this. Comparing it to recent albums, it's all so low impact, and much of it sounds like half-finished demos. But even that isn't fair as many Smashing Pumpkins half-finished demos from earlier years sound better.
The mix isn't great either. The instruments are mostly pushed to the background, with Billy's whine right up front. Buried in the mix with a wall of guitars, I like his voice, but right up front, singer-songwriter style, it grates quickly.
A 6-disc re-issue of this album is due. I've bought all the previous re-issues and enjoyed them to varying levels. A full remix (rather than remaster) of this might make me enjoy it more, but it's probably overall too mellow.
3/10
