Quote:
Originally Posted by DemonUnicorns
I just took it piece by piece. I had heard most of their singles, but when I wanted to listen to it all I took the first album I wanted to listen to (MCIS) and listened to it for a while. Then I'd pick and choose the next one I wanted to listen to. Overwhelming myself with music is a sure fire way to not listen to it all, so that's why I only stuck to introducing one album at a time. But once I had listened to an album and moved on to the next one, I would still keep that album in my listening cycle.
I'll post more later if I think of anything else to say.
Edit: I will say though that the "quality drop" post-reunion is real. It's not really up for debate. As someone who heard the new music (pre-Monuments) before *most* of their discography, it's a pretty noticeable difference, and not for the better.
I say that because some people argue that critics of the new Simpsons episodes (2000-present) only dislike them because they've outgrown the series, and it's not relevant to them in their current stage of life. As in, if you took a new viewer to the Simpsons series, and had them watch the newer episodes, they wouldn't see the problems that "original" fans have with the newer episodes.
-not that I necessarily agree or disagree with that, but surely you can understand what they mean. But in the Smashing Pumpkin's case, SP1 > SP2 is a fact.
Judging by your post, I got into SP around the same time as you, but more quickly. I have all the albums from Gish - Machina pretty much locked in my brain. I just wanted to say that I liked Dorian the most on MTAE and wondered if that had anything to do with us being ~new to SP.
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I just think 'Dorian' has some sort of definitive 'Pumpkins' quality to it. It captures some kind of 'atmosphere' which none of the other tracks (or most/all SP2 songs) have. I agree that SP1 > SP2, however I recognize Billy's need to find a new sound rather than repeat an old one. I think the problem is he's trying to draw art from a conscious level rather than a subconscious one like back in the day. Too much calculating.