A Service of The Arrow           Monday March 27, 2000 8:56 PM

By: Scott Bennett

ARROW STAFF

After the lukewarm response to their 1998 album, Adore, The Smashing Pumpkins launch themselves into the year 2000 with a new album, Machina / the machines of God. This album makes a return to the hard, chaotic and original musical style that made them famous in the first place.

Lead singer Billy Corgan takes a break from producing to reprise his role in the band. He also has a large stake in this album’s production and is credited with writing all the album’s songs, co-producing, and assisting in mixing tracks.

Only weeks before Machina’s release, the Pumpkins’ famed bass player, D’arcy, announced she was leaving the band, after more than 10 years. But having survived bad reviews and the departure of their drummer ?. If they’ve made it this far, The Smashing Pumpkins can survive anything.

A blend of hard-edged, techno-tinged tracks and soft melodies make Machina difficult to classify. Once again, the Smashing Pumpkins prove themselves perfectly capable of transcending musical boundaries.

The album’s first single, "The Everlasting Gaze," sets the mood for what most of the album: imaginative, loud, vivid and furious, a sound of the pre-Adore Pumpkins. But Machina also reveals a completely new voice from a band that helped define rock in the ‘90s, and holds promise for continuing doing so in the new millennium.

Other Machina tracks, like "Try, Try, Try," and "With Every Light," have the same ethereal optimism of great Pumpkins’ songs like "1979."

The incredible musical contrast that the Smashing Pumpkins show album after album, as well as incredible talent, and style all their own kept them afloat for the first decade of their career. Let’s hope that combination will keep them around for another one.

Machina / the machines of God resurrects the traditional Pumpkins’ sound after a daring but unsuccessful foray into the mellow and moody with Adore. Machina is an amazing bounce back into the sound and style that made the Smashing Pumpkins a formidable rock group.

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