Zeitgeist, or Frightgeist?

Thanks to YouTube, I finally got the chance to hear the Smashing Pumpkin’s new single, Tarantula.

I think the fact that I can’t remember a single lyric or melody from it is a really bad sign.

I mentioned in my last post about the Pumpkin’s how Billy Corgan’s been struggling to put out a song that resonates with the public ever since the release of Adore in 1998. From that album on, the Pumpkins – and more specifically Billy himself – seem completely unable to strike a chord with the general listening public.

The lead single off an album is always an important one, as it sets the tone for what to expect from the forthcoming LP. I thought Ava Adore from Adore was an interesting, if not particularly catchy, single. The Everlasting Gaze seemed to be showcasing the Pumpkin’s return to a heavier, more Mellon Collie-style sound for Machina / The Machines of God, and was a genuinely good rock song. But still, it didn’t get much interest. Honestly, from Billy’s Pumpkins follow-up group Zwan was, I felt, an excellent piece of bright pop rock that once again completely failed to generate excitement. And the less said about Walking Shade from Billy’s solo album, the better.

So now we have Tarantula, from the upcoming Zeitgeist record. I guess I can’t complain about buried, fuzzy vocals, as these vocals are so clear they almost sound like they’ve been recorded on a home PC’s microphone function. Neither the verses nor the chorus are particularly memorable, and aside from a few moments here and there, the whole song fails to get off the ground. Such a weird choice for not just a lead single, but a lead single after an almost ten-year absence.

All in all, I don’t think it bodes very well for the whole comeback effort. I think during the promised reunion tour, audiences will be there for the old material, and will deign to simply suffer through the new stuff. But for all I know, there’s some tracks on the album that’ll prove to be genuinely good stuff (as was the case with the Zwan and solo efforts) and Zeitgeist might prove to be, if not a return to glory for the Pumpkins, at least not a complete embarrassment.

And just for clarification; that Paris Hilton image is actually the single’s cover. I understand they’re going with the whole ‘zeitgeist’ motif, but it just seems like embarrassingly shallow comment without much foresight.