Album cover for Oceania by The Smashing Pumpkins. Photo / Supplied
If there are any Smashing Pumpkins fans left out there, they've been hanging in with gritted teeth.
The line-up changes, 2007's underwhelming Zeitgeist and the quasi-mystical bollocks of the online Teargarden By Kaleidyscope series has meant little pay-off since the 90s alt-rock titans reformed in 2005.
That changes with Oceania,
an electric return-to-form.
Say what you want about frontman, songwriter and sole original member Billy Corgan, but the nasally front man knows how to kick off a record, and Oceania comes front-loaded with three of the best tracks Corgan has written since 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: The rumbling heavy metal thump of Quasar, the drilling drumming and soaring vocals of Panopticon and The Celestials, a classic quiet-loud rocker that's layered like the Pumpkins of old.
Corgan's moody, sniping lyrics have been replaced by a positivity that shines through in tracks like the shimmering ballad One Diamond, One Heart, and excellent slow-builder Pinwheels.
