What is the best album by The Smashing Pumpkins?

Dense guitar walls, shimmering dream sequences, and Billy Corgan's grandiose vision collide across a catalog full of both triumphs and left turns. Which album is the summit?

1. 1
   Siamese Dream

   The Smashing Pumpkins' 1993 breakthrough, a wall-of-sound rock landmark written during Corgan's personal crisis and widely considered their finest hour.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

   The band's sprawling 1995 double album, one of the defining statements of 90s rock featuring 'Bullet with Butterfly Wings' and '1979'.
   911pts

   DI
3. 3
   Monuments to an Elegy

   A concise 2014 album of synth-tinged rock recorded with Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, featuring the single 'Being Beige'.
   738pts
4. 4
   ATUM: A Rock Opera in Three Acts

   The band's ambitious 2023 triple-album concept piece continuing the Zeitgeist narrative arc across 33 tracks of sonic adventuring.
   451pts
5. 5
   Adore

   A 1998 electronic-tinged departure following the dissolution of the classic lineup, both experimental and deeply vulnerable.
   451pts
6. 6
   Cyr

   The band's 2020 double album of synth-heavy, gothic-tinged pop rock, twenty songs built around keyboards and drum programming rather than walls of guitar.
   443pts
7. 7
   Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun.

   The 2018 eight-song album produced by Rick Rubin that reunited Billy Corgan with original members James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin.
   443pts
8. 8
   Machina/The Machines of God

   The Smashing Pumpkins' 2000 concept album exploring themes of celebrity, spirituality, and rock mythology in an ambitious theatrical statement.
   383pts
9. 9
   Oceania

   A 2012 album praised as a strong creative comeback, showcasing a leaner and more focused Pumpkins sound with new drummer Mike Byrne.
   383pts
10. 10
    Aghori Mhori Mei

    The 2024 album that returned the band to heavy, guitar-driven rock in the spirit of their 1990s records, released just a year after Atum.
    275pts
11. 11
    Zeitgeist

    The band's 2007 reunion album returning to a harder, riff-driven rock sound, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200.
    219pts
12. 12
    Gish

    The Smashing Pumpkins' 1991 debut, a dense and heavy psychedelic rock album showcasing Corgan's early brilliance and Butch Vig's production.
    219pts
13. 13
    Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music

    The 2000 companion to Machina that Billy Corgan gave away online for free, originally pressed on only 25 vinyl copies before the band's first breakup.
    0pts

Comments