THE SMASHING PUMPKINS – ATUM [A Rock Opera in Three Acts] (2023)

While THE SMASHING PUMPKINS style of music isn’t among the favorite of this website, there’s many readers diggin’ their eclectic mix of rock.
”ATUM” is a rock opera presented in three acts / discs created by mastermind Billy Corgan. The album tells an epic interplanetary story set in the not-too-distant future, though the songs themselves respectively stand on their own in the Pumpkins pantheon. This is the final installment in a concept album trilogy, which began with 1995’s Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness and then continued with 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God.
The recording features three original members of the band – William Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin – as well as longtime guitarist Jeff Schroeder.
Corgan had been developing the idea for the rock opera for years, and the pandemic gave him the time off the road to meticulously complete it in the grandiose way he had intended. And it’s very interesting, both musically and lyrically.

Act I
1. ATUM
2. Butterfly Suite
3. The Good In Goodbye
4. Embracer
5. With Ado I Do
6. Hooligan
7. Steps In Time
8. Where Rain Must Fall
9. Beyond The Vale
10. Hooray!
11. The Gold Mask

Act II
1. Avalanche
2. Empires
3. Neophyte
4. Moss
5. Night Waves
6. Space Age
7. Every Morning
8. To The Grays
9. Beguiled
10. The Culling
11. Springtimes

Act III
1. Sojourner
2. That Which Animates The Spirit
3. The Canary Trainer
4. Pacer
5. In Lieu Of Failure
6. Cenotaph
7. Harmageddon
8. Fireflies
9. Intergalactic
10. Spellbinding
11. Of Wings

William Corgan
James Iha
Jimmy Chamberlin
Jeff Schroeder

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