The Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits - Rotten Apples

Smashing Pumpkins

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 20, 2001)
• Original Release Date: November 20, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B00005RGFU
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (241 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,024 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The Smashing Pumpkins' greatest-hits album, Rotten Apples, traces the band's evolution (or devolution, depending on your feelings about the band's radical sonic shift in the mid-'90s) from its early days to its status among the kings of alt rock. For fans of the Pumpkins' beginnings as a tripped-out indie/art rock act, Apples opens with some of the band's strongest material. "Siva" and "Rhinoceros" (from Gish, the Pumpkin's first--and arguably best--album) seamlessly mixed dream pop with noisy goth-rock as prime examples of the Pumpkins' early '90s sound. Apples also showcases three stellar tracks ("Cherub Rock," "Today," and "Disarm") from Siamese Dream, the Pumpkins' breakout album. This disc makes the band's mid-'90s directional swing obvious, though, starting with "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," the aggressive alt rock/alt metal concoction released on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Fans of songs like "Zero," "Tonight, Tonight," and "The Everlasting Gaze" will be happy to know that pretty much every cage-rattling hit made it to this disc, along with the previously unreleased dream pop track "Real Love" and an untitled new track (that sounds a lot like the Siamese Dream-era Pumpkins) to round out the mix. --Jennifer Maerz

Product Description
Limited edition Japanese version of their 2001 'Greatest Hits' collection includes one track unavailable on the US edition, 'Try, Try, Try'. 18 tracks on the first disc and the bonus B-sides & rarities disc carries the same tracks (16) as every other terr --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Most of the "Greatest", December 3, 2004

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the greatest bands of the 90s, a mixture of dreamy pop and stark grungey metal, set against Billy Corgan's poem-like songwriting. And "The Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits" almost lives up to its name -- there are one or two songs that don't quite fit here, but most of them are indeed the "Greatest" that the band produced.

The songs are pretty much arranged in chronological order, starting off with the hard-rocker "Siva" and heading off into the mixture of hard rock/metal, and eerie dreampop, climaxing with the rich offerings from "Mellon Collie And the Infinite Sadness." With the songs of "Adore," there's an obvious shift in tone, becoming a bit more gothic and less rockish, only to swing back in the slow-burning songs from "Machina," their swan song.

There is also a bonus disc here: "Judas O," the follow-up to B-sides collection "Pisces Iscariot." Like its predecessor, "Judas O" is a collection so solid that it outshines many proper albums, containing B-sides to "Machina/The Machines of God," "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," and the rare "Machina II," as well as some truly outstanding new songs. They range from gentle acoustics to explosive guitars, and reaffirm that even the discards from the Pumpkins are of excellent quality.

Long after disbanding, the Smashing Pumpkins are still a towering presence in rock -- they debuted in the era of Nirvana, but with a very different kind of music. Their creative use of basic instruments and Billy Corgan's rich songwriting made them much more complex and deeper than almost all rock bands of the time. And "Greatest Hits" follows them through the band's entire lifetime -- from their surprisingly polished debut to the panoramic "Mellon Collie" to their gothic art-rock.

The songs included on "Greatest Hits" are not just the most commercially known, but also several of the best -- "Ava Adore," "Siva," "1979" and "Tonight Tonight." An additional track is stuck on, "Real Love," but somehow it just isn't up to the standards of the other songs. It's nice, but not up to the level of the "Greatest" Smashing Pumpkins songs. For that, "Judas O" takes over.

Corgan was without a doubt the creative center of the Pumpkins -- he wrote the songs, filling them with doubts, anger and anguish, and also provided some mind-blowing guitar riffs and his vocals. His high, reedy voice is woven well into the music, giving his poetic lyrics an unusually heartfelt quality. He's singing about love, death, bombs, loneliness in a metaphorical wasteland.

The guitar and bass provide sizzling soundscapes and dense walls of sound, while the percussion is complex and lightning-fast. At the same time, we get the sweeping dreampop -- like the haunting "Rhinoceros" -- and gentler songs, where Corgan slows his guitar down to a gentle acoustic strum. That versatility is one of the things that made the Pumpkins so outstanding.

Rock doesn't get much more original than the Smashing Pumpkins, and several of their greatest hits -- both among fans and critics -- are compiled in "The Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits." The best-of disc is a good look at their work, but it's "Judas O" which makes this a must-have.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Smashing CD, July 5, 2002

By	"midnightdancer" (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

I was more than happy when the Smashing Pumpkins came out with a greatest hits record. The CD "Rotten Apples" comes complete with all of the classic Pumpkins songs from over the years.

From their first CD "Gish", you have the songs Siva and Rhinoceros.
From "Siamese Dream", you've got Cherub Rock, Today, and Disarm.
From the disc of B-Sides, "Pisces Iscariot", there is the cover of the Fleetwood Mac song, Landslide.
From "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness", there is Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Tonight Tonight, 1979, and Zero.
From "Adore", you have Ava Adore and Perfect.
From "Machina/The Machines of God", there is The Everlasting Gaze and Stand Inside your Love
And two songs not released on Pumpkins CD's in the past but put on other soundtrack albums are Drown and Eye.

Some other bright spots are the two previously unreleased tracks that close the album, Real Love and Untitled. Real Love sounds much like the version put on the Machina II album, and internet release that many fans never got to hear. Untitled is a very strong track and a good closing track that has the radio-friendly sound the band masters at.

If you were lucky to get the Bonus CD of rarities and b-sides also known as Judas-O with your Rotten Apples disc, you will most definately enjoy the over 15 previously unreleased songs, that is just as good as the greatest hits disc and is sure to be a hit itself.

The Smashing Pumpkins have come a long way since their first album, and you can listen to the growth and change in sound over the years throughout this disc. It is well worth the money and even if you're not a Pumpkins fan yet or are thinking of giving them a listen, go with this CD, it is sure to be a favorite in your collection for years to come.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm Satisfied - It Won't Get Better Than This, I Guess, December 9, 2001

By	Jason N. Mical (Bellevue, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits [Limited Edition] (Audio CD)

When making a Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits collection, the question isn't what to include, it is what you are forced to leave off. The Pumpkins have one of the most diverse portfolios in the history of music, especially considering that the band was only around for about nine years. On one end, you have the grunge-and-punk influenced sounds of Gish, to the acid-rock of Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie, and the electronica of the Chamberlain-free Adore. Add to that several singles from movie soundtracks and the real gems in the Pumpkins' crown - their incredible b-sides - and compiling a Greatest Hits collection becomes a Herculean task.

Thankfully for die-hards and casual fans like, this collection manages to get it just about right. A two-disc set that's rumored to have a limited run, Greatest Hits features all the major singles on its first disc, Rotten Apples, and a healthy dose of b-sides and unreleased stuff on the second, Judas-O. The so-called "radio singles" make up most of Rotten Apples, and these are the songs that most people will instantly recognize - the songs that, rightly, made the Pumpkins famous. There aren't any major, glaring omissions here, although I can hear the fanboys from here yelling, "Why didn't they include x?"

Perhaps the fanboys should take note of the second disc, which collects some of the best b-sides stuff the Pumpkins put out. I've been telling people ever since I first heard the band right before Siamese Dream that the Pumpkins really are a b-side band; some of their very best stuff is also some of their hardest-to-locate stuff. I have my own complaints about omissions - as far as I'm concerned, the entire Zero single could have been included here - but, all in all, it's a satisfying helping. There are several unreleased tracks on here that will probably become nothing but a footnote to Pumpkins history, but they should be given their due.

I have a feeling that, as time progresses, Rotten Apples and Judas-O well become to the Pumpkins what Hot Rocks! was to the Rolling Stones: the summary collection that people of future generations will turn to when they want to add the band to their music collection. Although diehards will shake their heads and proudly spin their copies of Bullet Train to Osaka, the bottom line is that we couldn't ask for a much better representation of one of the greatest musical acts of all time. If, one day, your kid comes home with this album firmly tucked under arm and you still have a complaint about something missing, remember, that's what CD burners are for.