Can William Get His Groove Back?

[Jelly Blossom]

I'm not the biggest Billy/SP fan. I've always felt he was a terrible singer, over-rated as a songwriter and in general just a malcontent who's over exaggerated many elements of his life in order to sell himself to the record buying public.

I got into the Pumpkins in the late 90s, around the Adore era, right at the end of what many would consider the "golden age" of the group's popularity. Admittedly I got into the group a little late, partially due to my age and partially due to my disliking Corgan's voice and how weird and awkward he came across in his interviews and appearances.

That being said, there was a period of time in the late 90s-early 2000s where his level of proficiency didn't affect the quality of material he was producing. IMO that period was between 1997-2000 (though I'm sure many would incIude the Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie periods in that, which is fair I suppose), but there's a lot of material from this period that's impressive, such as "Ava Adore", "Crestfallen", "Stand Inside Your Love", "Slow Dawn", "Untitled", "Pug", "Speed Kills", etc..

I personally like Zeitgeist, though I know that's not a popular sentiment with SP fans. And while there definitely were some questionable compositions ("(Come On) Let's Go!", "United States") by and large the quality of material on the album isn't as bad as people seem to want to think it is.

For me, Billy lost any magic he had after Jimmy left in early 2009. I don't say that meaning he lost it specifically because Jimmy left, but more in a cause and effect was as I think Jimmy leaving led Billy to officially start defining himself as The Smashing Pumpkins.

With this mindset he went full force in the direction of the failed Teargarden project and his attempt to find a backing band, and he got overconfident in his songwriting abilities during the time when he lost his ability to write any significant amount of quality material. His overconfidence wouldn't allow himself to see that glaring fact despite the Teargarden material not gaining much critical praise (or that many downloads despite being free). So in usual Billy fashion he over-reacted, fired everybody (except Jeff) and put a hault to the Teargarden project with little fanfare.

After that we got Monuments which is easily the worst Pumpkins record, and now we're getting RadioGaGa or whatever the new album's called. Which, after listening to "Aeronaut" a whole whoppin' two times I have no interest in listening to the album, much less buying it when it comes out.

So when do you think that Billy lost his groove? As stated above I personally think it was in 2009 when Jimmy quite working with him which was followed by a server drop in quality from Billy.

Do you think he could get it back, or do you think he's past his prime and should be put down like an old dog or racing horse?