The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Virgin
July 27th, 1993.
The Smashing Pumpkins debut, Gish, introduced the music world to a potential major player in the alternative rock sphere. Potential which would be fully fulfilled second time round with Siamese Dream - a reverberant piece of shoegaze/alt-rock grandeur. Put on that spacesuit, cowboy, we're going on a trip.
Butch Vig produced The Smashing Pumpkins debut, 'Gish', which was released in May of 1991, and then went on to produce Nirvana's 'Nevermind' later in the same year. So you could say that Vig has his hands on maybe the most important rock album of the 90's - some would say ever - and also one of the most aesthetically astounding records in the alternative rock world - My Bloody Valentine's 'Loveless' being the only other record that revolves in and around Siamese Dream's sonic prowess. The Russian doll of Alternative Rock, Siamese Dream. The deeper you dig, the further you get away from that which you seek - Siamese Dream plays out like a real-life game of 'search, and you will not find'. There's no bottom to this records resonant layers; they echo and elapse ad infinitum. Jump in and find yourself entirely lost - there's nothing to hold on to here, no safety rope will guide you home. Find your feet and be no better off. Lost and found - only lost.
Amps melted down to liquefied sludge - an immeasurable heat sharply spins from the core of Siamese Dream; the waves of warmth are tangible. Desert-like it soaks the moisture from the soil. Withering away, the earth slowly revolves and resonates, gushing smoke and brewing embers.
Home to a never-ending quality, as mentioned in many a way over the course of the writeup, Siamese Dream is one of a kind, one of an aesthetic(done this well), and one hell of an album.
Sounds within sounds. A sea within seas.
