Album: Smashing Pumpkins – Cyr

It’s almost a truism in rock’n’roll that within every padded and bloated double album, there’s a fine single disc waiting to burst out.

Among the plethora of tunes on Smashing Pumpkins’ first double album since 1995’s fine Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, however, there’s barely enough to fill a worthwhile EP. In fact, given the joyless musical Mogadon on offer on Cyr, even that might be something of a stretch.

Flat and uninspiring tunes follow dreary and unmemorable dirges almost without pause for great swathes of the 70 minutes or so of Smashing Pumpkins’ latest effort. “The colour of your love is grey” sings mainman Billy Corgan on the opening track and it pretty much describes everything to be found within Cyr. Synth-heavy and almost riff-free songs such as “Wrath”, “Ramona” and “Anno Satanna” trundle along in a mid-tempo plod and it’s not until almost half-way into the album that “Wyttch” raises its head to inject anything approaching a groove. By this point, however, it requires a concerted effort to pay any attention to whatever’s limping out of the speakers. It has to be said that things don’t get any more engaging with the likes of the bumbling “Telegenix”, “Adrennalynne” and “Haunted” during the second half of this seemingly endless long player either.

This writer’s last experience of Smashing Pumpkins was to be in the audience for their disappointing performance at 2019’s Download Festival, where Corgan appeared on stage dressed as the Addams Family’s Uncle Fester and his band of personality-free miseries struggled to show any enthusiasm whatsoever during their set. Unfortunately, very little seems to have changed in the last year or so and it’s almost impossible to believe that the Smashing Pumpkins on Cyr is, with the exception of long-ousted former bassist D’Arcy Wretzky, the same band that once gave the world tunes like the glorious “Cherub Rock”, “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” and “Drown”.

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