Zeitgeist (The Smashing Pumpkins, 2007)

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People got really tired of The Smashing Pumpkins with the artistic yet repetitive Machina album. Guess the mighty Chicago alt-rockers felt the same way: following frequent internal battles, and Jimmy Chamberlin's drug abuse, they split up. Forget the rest of the band, things for band frontman and founder Billy Corgan didn't turn out too well. His 2005's solo-debut The Future Embrace was like a slap in the face of fans of both him and the band: an overcooked, overproduced and overzealous electronic oddity; a real embarrassment. His short-lived band Zwan was the only redeeming facet of his non-Smashing Pumpkins days.

Not entirely out of desperation, Corgan then started buying huge ads in newspapers pleading with disgruntled band members...declaring his intentions to "renew and revive" the greatness of The Smashing Pumpkins. And the only guy who turned up was Jimmy Chamberlin, the master drummer and percussionist who Corgan and crew kicked out several times on account of his stoner status.

After a seven-year hiatus, Zeitgeist has hit the shelves, and it is a very astute and refreshing return to The Smashing Pumpkins sound we knew and loved -- as one critic put it, the goth-metal-shoegaze sound. Unlike "Machina," it is not a retread; the new album's got its own vibe. From Obey Giant's elegant and subversive cover design of the Statue of Liberty drowning in water, with a rising/setting sun behind, to tracks like "Doomsday Clock," "7 Days of Black" and the epic and haunting and beautiful "United States," Zeitgeist is a sonically and lyrically sophisticated. The foreboding of melody-driven "Bleeding The Orchid" is tempered by meditative ballads such as "Neverlost."

Ignore the naysayers still unhappy about non-returning guitarist James Iha and bassist D'arcy. This is Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin taking us back to the Siamese Dream days. I can't believe how shockingly good this album is!

Favourite tracks: United States, Neverlost, Bleeding The Orchid, Doomsday Clock, 7 Days of Black, That's The Way (My Love Is)