Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
TheFutureEmbrace, June 21, 2005
To be honest, this album is excellent. Billy Corgan, in all his long career, has never once disappointed me. Every Pumpkins album was fantastic, including the Aeroplane boxset and other b-side collections like Judas O and Pisces Iscariot. We shouldn't be surprised that TheFutureEmbrace sounds akin to the Pumpkins because Billy was the driving creative and musical force in the band. You can think of TheFutureEmbrace as belonging somewhere right between Adore and Machina, musically. The album has very fine polish and poise, and each song evokes a different feeling or emotion from the listener. The songs have a wonderful balance of electronica and rock to make this album fit nicely in a very niche genre of synth rock. The songs range from upbeat, like All Things Change, to very dark and sombre, like Mina Loy and the single track, Walking Shade. If you're a fan of Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins, especially the Adore album, then you will absolutely love this album, as I do. However, if you think that the Pumpkins peak work was Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, you will not likely see eye to eye with Billy on this new work. If you consider yourself a true fan of music and someone who likes to hear new and different ways of expressing time honored sentiments, then you owe it to yourself to pick up this album.
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
EmbraceTheFuture, July 5, 2005
The Smashing Pumpkins, that earthshaking rock band of the 1990s, broke up in 2001. Most of the members -- James Iha, James Chamberlin and Melissa Auf Der Maur -- have embarked on solo careers, with varying successes. In the meantime, frontman Billy Corgan put out a book of poetry and started a new band, the sadly short-lived Zwan.
Now Billy Corgan has gone solo for real, with "TheFutureEmbrace," with his usual mixture of self-examination and brooding music. It doesn't exactly forge new territories, but the echoes of the Pumpkins merely enhance the dreamier, softer sound.
"All things change/never rest, never sure/what is worth/fighting on for?" Corgan asks in the dream-rocker "All Things Change," over a bed of buzzing guitars. That dreamy sound continues throughout the album -- sometimes it's laced with synth blips, sometimes with airy distortion.
In fact, "TheFutureEmbrace" might have simply floated away if Corgan hadn't included some grittier songs to ground it. "Mina Loy (M.O.H.)" kicks it off with some twisting synth, drum machines and a dark bassline. The songs in that vein are catchy and gritty, so it keeps the whole thing from seeming a bit too art-rocky.
Who will like it? Fans of Corgan will more or less know what to expect, and will probably enjoy it. Those that don't like Corgan's past work probably won't like this either, because it has Corgan's style written all over the album.
With "TheFutureEmbrace," Corgan has taken a slightly different musical turn. The harder rock of his old days has been replaced by a haze of synth and some murky dreampop guitars. All the songs feel softer and more comfortable, like shoes that have been broken in. Corgan's vocals are still a bit nasal, a bit high, but he puts so much passion into his singing that sooner or later you get yanked in.
The odd thing is, he seems to be at peace. There is pain and unhappiness, sure -- at one point he seems to be explaining his past work, by announcing "a naked soul just has to grieve/if I bleed, the camera cries." But Corgan also sings that "we can change the world," and announces, "only you remind me/that only love can find me." It's not really Corgan's best work, but it's still very good songwriting.
Billy Corgan's return is not a smashing rebirth, but a quieter triumph that takes awhile to fully sink in. A solid solo album, and definitely one worthy of praise.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pure Billy Corgan, June 22, 2005
I did not know what to expect from this CD. I expected it to be enjoyable and I expected it to sound like Billy, but beyond those two things I was clueless. What I found was a very interesting collection of 12 songs that are familiar yet somehow different from anything Billy has given us before.
Stylistically, the CD is unclassifiable. It's not necessarily rock, it's not electronic, it's some hybrid between the two. The sound is different from Zwan, Billy's last musical outing, and different from the early and late Pumpkins music. If I were to compare this CD to anything Billy has produced musically, I would say that musically, this CD is closest to the Pumpkins CD, "Adore." Lyrically though, the CD is much different. The lyrics on "Adore" were typical Pumpkins lyrics. They were full of love, sadness, pain, rage, etc... The lyrics Billy wrote for "The Future Embrace" seem much more uplifting. There is a feeling of hope to these songs that seems to almost go hand in hand with Billy's book of poems and some of the Zwan songs. The music is not necessarily the most uplifting music I've ever heard, but I caught myself smiling multiple times when I sat there and actually listened to the words. Billy is a poet. He's a very interesting writer, and I recommend that you take the time to buy this CD, sit there for an hour, and let the lyrics and music he has put together take you somewhere different.
If nothing else, this CD is an escape from everything else on the Billboard 200 charts today. It's different in a way that's intriguing, fun, and worth listening to. Is it as "good" as the mid-90's Pumpkin rage that Billy is known for? Yes and no. If you want angsty-rage, look elsewhere, but if you want music worth listening to, look right here. Billy Corgan is an awesome musician, and as long as he's putting music out, we should all buy it.
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