Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.00 You Save: $8.98 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Pisces Iscariot
Free Music Review: No b-sides here
Hit: 5 Stars
A band that can produce an album of b-sides this good is obviously in another stratosphere. This may be going out on a limb, but I rank "Whir", "Blue", and "La Dolly Vita" right up there with other Pumpkin masterpieces like "Drown", "Rhinoceros", "Hummer", "Soma", "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" and "Pug". Especially "Whir", which is simply a gorgeous, sad, sad song -- the pain in Billy's voice when he sings "she said she wants to marry me" is obvious. "La Dolly Vita" has an amazing groove, and I think it's the closest the Pumpkins ever came to a dance song. "Blew Away" is the best song James Iha has ever recorded, and it should have been saved for Mellon Collie to replace the dreadful "Take Me Down". "Starla" is really long and repetetive, but it does rock and its quieter parts are really nice. "Frail and Bedazzled", "Pissant", and "Hello Kitty Kat" all remind me of some of the more chaotic elements on Gish, when the Pumpkins rocked with a certain aggressive edge that they never recaptured, even on Siamese Dream. Then there's "Landslide", which is a really nice cover, but I can't understand why it was the only song that was released from this album. Go get Pisces Iscariot, you'll love it.Free Music Review: Essential companion to Gish and Siamese Dream
Hit: 5 Stars
Being stuff from both the "Gish" and "Siamese Dream" era, this collection of B-sides and outtakes provides an interesting look at the earlier days of the Pumpkins, and is the 3rd CD to get after purchasing those two classics. It runs the gamut from simple, inspired moments of improvisation like "Soothe" to climatic wall-of-sound moments that send tinges down your spine like "Pissant" and "Hello Kitty Kat." Seriously, it's amazing how the Pumpkins manage to rock even harden than Siamese Dream on those two tracks alone. Great stuff, but the absolute keeper on this collection is "Starla," for which epic isn't big enough of a word to describe. Simple, plaintive, but honest lyrics build to a crescendo of a climax, where guitars seem to come from all sides. Headphones required for maximum effect. A couple are throwaways, such as "Blue," "Girl Named Sandoz" (good cover but nowhere near as amazing or captivating as the band's own sound), and the last instrumental "Spaced," but this album's by far much more essential than anything that came after it. If you're addicted to Gish and Siamese Dream and desperately want the same sound, don't hesitate to pick this one up. Terrific liner notes by the way, outlining little histories behind each song.Free Music Review: Great leftovers!
Hit: 5 Stars
I first heard the Smashing Pumpkins on the Singles Soundtrack, the song was called Drown and, even thought it didn't make it to a SP album, it is as good as the best the band has produced.
A collection of b-sides which are, mostly, the leftovers from the astounding Siamese Dream (which may be my favourite cd of all time), Pisces Iscariot shows the great moment billy was having as a songwriter (though he certainly didn't feel so). It opens, quietly, with the incredibly beautiful soothe (recorded in billy's apartment, or in a hotel room, i don't quite remember), and follows with the energetic Frail and Bedazzled. There, you get the impression that these songs didn't quite fit Siamese Dream (which is a very tight album). They are great, but not in the same mood, or maybe there were songs on SD that already fulfilled the purpose of these material.
Anyway, the rest of the cd is just first class material, I particularly love the nice guitar work of Whir, the tender and surprisingly enchanting interpretation of Landslide, the sonic bliss of Starla, and the slow builder, La Dolly Vita. This cd is one of the best samples of alternative rock, if such a thing ever existed. oh, don't forget to check out Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and Adore, which are also great pumpkins cds (even better than this one)
Free Music Review: great sounds make ears good
Hit: 5 Stars
What surprises me most about Pisces Iscariot is the sheer eclecticism that it represents. These are songs that range from the barely-there acoustic opener Soothe to the all-out amps on 11 grind of Pissant. Corgan forces sounds out of his guitar that don't seem to all be coming from the same place.
The guitar on Plume sounds more like a truck revving its engine than any instrument I can think of, but the sound doesn't overcome the dry sarcasm of the line "Oh yeah, another day. Oh yeah, gotta play." There's a juxtaposition of the empowerment of being a rock star with the self-realization that life is boring.
Pisces Iscariot is a statement of what music the band felt had gone too far to fit on a conventional record; material that's too personal, too indulgent. There's a cover of Landslide on here. There's an epic monster. The booklet itself is made as if just thrown together at the last moment on rice paper.
It's an album of disparate songs, but they somehow fit together. You can hear cars going by in the background. It sounds like Chicago.
Ironically, it's in the b-side collection that I find music that I think best reflects what the pumpkins were about.
And it's totally great.
Free Music Review: 5 Stars is Pathetically Low For This CD
Hit: 5 Stars
I know one thing about this cd, and that's that it's there best one, then Gish, then Mellon Collie, the Siamese. I know it's good cause i've been listening to it since '96. I think the song that i like the most on it is Whir. I just love how acoustic it is or atleast the way Corgan did it. Only one other acoustic song i think compares and thats Cherub Rock on Vieuphoria or Earphoria, which ever way you hear it, and its a pumpkins song too. But just cause Whir is the best on there, doesnt mean that nothing compares. I mean, youve got soothe, frail and bedazzled, plume, la dolly vita, obscured, hello kitty kat, blue, blew away, landslide (which i think is much better than the original), pissant, starla, spaced, and girl called sandoz. I know thats the whole album, but take a hint, plus i think they all deserved to be named. Also, i dont like whir just cause its slow and thats all i like is slow songs, cause my fav's from the others are XYU, geek u.s.a., bury me and others. But like i said, 5 stars isnt enough to rate this album by any means. One thing i think is pretty funny, is how billy wrote girl called sandoz after he met some chick at a party. Nothin against the song, but how would you like to have a song like that be inspired by you?