"Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" is an incredible work from the American alternative band The Smashing Pumpkins. Released on October 24th of 1995, the double CD (triple album) features some incredibly diverse styles and more input from D'arcy Wretzky and James Iha, though certainly Billy Corgan is still the dominant creative member of the band.

The album is not afraid to take some chances. It opens with an instrumental, which is relatively soft. There is tremendous diversity, as the sound can go from acoustic to very heavy and vice-versa from one song to the next. The majority of the album is made up of relatively short pieces of less than five minutes, but there are a few longer pieces mixed in with the 28 tracks. The shorter pieces tend to stick to one type of sound, while a couple of the longer pieces are more diverse within themselves.

The opening instrumental leads into the excellent "Tonight, Tonight", but the softer and more orchestrated sound doesn't sound last as it then turns much heavier with tracks like "Jellybelly", and "Zero", and the first single "Bullet With Butterfly Wings". The contrast in sounds goes back and forth, between the heavy and the light until eventually the group delivers a longer piece itself filled with contrast in "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans", which is then followed with the first half closer "Take Me Down". The album is a concept album of sorts, dealing with the very simple realities of life and death.

The second CD is more of the same, which is to say more diversity of sound and more changes and surprises. The transition from "1979" to "Tales of a Scorched Earth" is a great example of moving from one type of sound to almost its polar opposite from track to track. Not that every track change is so dramatic, but their changes help to keep things fresh and interesting. There also is a rather unusual use of tunings as well as instruments. Overall, this is an album which one needs to listen to many times, and one which the listener will hear something new each time. With its incredible diversity, there may be pieces which you don't like on this album, but for myself I found that they were all at least intriguing. From the titles mentioned before, to the delightfully odd "We Only Come Out at Night" and the simple love song "Lilly (My One and Only)", this is a great album to experience over and over.

The Smashing Pumpkins are Billy Corgan (lead vocal, guitar, piano), James Iha (guitar, vocals), D'arcy Wretzky (bass, vocals), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums, vocals). Guest artists include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra ("Tonight, Tonight"), and Greg Leisz (pedal and lap steel guitar on "Take Me Down")

This album is in a league of it's own. The diligence with which this album was written truly shows. Nothing short of genius. Just remember, the Pumpkins always deliver.

There are some UNDOUBTEDLY classic songs on this album, and Billy Corgan's songwriting is top notch! However, I'd say I enjoyed only about half of the songs on the disc. Billy Corgan's voice can be annoying sometimes, and their "harder" songs are poorly executed and just kinda emo-ish and lame. This album should be listened to in sort of a story structure, but for a new Smashing Pumpkin fan like myself, stick to Siamese Dream for now.

Okay, I doubt much of a review is needed. Who hasn't heard at least a few of the tracks on this album by now? I love this album, it gets regular rotation on my stereo and probably will continue to for quite some time. I only rate it at 4 stars because one disc is clearly better than the other. The first disc of this concept album is absolutely brilliant, it has a little of everything and by itself would've been at least a 5 million sold album. There are only 4 or 5 tracks I like on the 2nd disc which makes it harder to get through, a lot of the slower ballad type songs are on it and that's not the Pumpkins at their best.

But the album is worth buying for the 1st disc by itself and the fact that songs like "1979" and "Thru The Eyes of Ruby" are on disc 2 is just a greatly added bonus in my opinion. I don't think this is the best Pumpkins album, I'm still partial to Gish myself, but this album reveals a band in better harmony than their previous 2 efforts, even if Billy played all the guitar and bass himself.

Side note: Jimmy Chamberlin on the drums is a joy to listen to throughout this album, drug addict or not, the man plays with passion and it's great to hear. Buy the album!

Solid Rock album my dad loves it for his brithday. He told me every track rocks and nothing short of a mind blowing perfect album by a solid rock band. His view and mine this was the bands best album.