LIFE SOUNDTRACK: The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore

The Smashing Pumpkins are one of the most successful rock bands of the 90s, so it is odd that I discovered them only by the end of the decade. To be precise: Elke discovered them via the Depeche Mode tribute album For The Masses and then then went out to buy Adore, their then current ’98 record.

I remember my first listen well: a bleak Sunday afternoon and I was about to leave town for a few days to attend a startup fair. I listened to this music while I was preparing myself for the trip, but song after song the record demanded attention.

It starts with To Sheila, one of the few acoustic guitar and vocals songs I love. A bold move by the Pumpkins to choose that song as the opener, because what follows after is everything but quiet. In particular Ava Adore, which was for some time my go to song when I needed an extra jolt of energy. For example, on New Year’s Eve with the volume cranked up, because nobody would complain anyway. And there are more great songs on it: Tear with its relentlessly repeated dramatic synth line or Pug that ends with a vicious noise that makes you have a look behind you.

Adore was undoubtely the peak of The Smashing Pumpkins. The follow-up Machina/The Machines of Gods was forgettable and so was the only show of them I saw. Main guy Billy Corgan then disbanded and resurrected the band under a new and then again the old name – to be honest I lost track over the years.