Aghori Mhori Mei (2024)

Growing older has made me realize I might not have actually been as into The Smashing Pumpkins as I thought I was. Sure I owned the staples, but past that there was no real desire to deep-dive or have them on that much. Mostly I was just listening to the reactions surrounding their works; and when I stopped, well, all I can say is I only own Gish and Adore at this point. But curiosity has always struck me and I have been listening to their recent output; and I was even more struck when I heard they had released a new record seemingly out of nowhere. Weird since they had announced it two weeks before and have reportedly been working on it for two years. Billy Corgan even commented that it would be "old-school" and for the fans, which knowing Corgan is notorious for being pig-headed when it comes to fan service is a troubling statement.

I'm vindicated coming out of this record knowing it was going to be exactly what I thought it would, if not worse. Aghori Mhori Mei is only old school Pumpkins in that Corgan is using his guitar and playing similar chords instead of plugging tons of synth-shit down our throats like on 2023's Atum. Aside from that, it's clear that Corgan simply does not write songs like he used to nevermind produce them. This record sounds dull and it actively hurts the few decent performances. Corgan's voice has always been divisive but here I can't see any defense. He sings sloppily and trips over himself when he overdubs ("Pentecost"). Sometimes his voice sounds like they were using demo recordings from his iPhone 8, it's ugly and watery like a compressed mp3 file. Similarly drummer Jimmy Chamberlin's performance is hampered by the overly pristine production, completely reducing the dynamic performances he gave in the band's golden era. Which doesn't help to make Corgan's guitar lines sound less flat and programmed, even when he pulls out a good solo on a couple songs (the opening cut for example).

Melodically Corgan can't seem to make anything stick either, it feels like he's writing the lyrics first and trying to make his waxing poetics fit the guitar lines. On original Pumpkins songs the melodies were imbued with the emotion of the lyrics; take away the vocals and you still know what a song like "Disarm" or "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" is all about. Aghori on the other hand is smudged by the ills of modern alt-metal, it even has that circular cover art with light around it which I dub "The Buttcheek". The lyrics strive to be conceptual but end up hampered by mediocre tunes as well as a general lack of cohesion throughout. The song build ups are predictable and non exhilarating and instead of making the song progress in an earned way Corgan is content to throw on bells and whistles; like a bunch of out of place background singers, strings, synths to really push that emotion. Compare that to a song like "Tonight, Tonight" which used two well composed and intertwined pieces to make a grand statement rather than slap-dash four into something half as powerful.

On top of all that, Aghori's biggest problem is it's boring. It's boring to listen to and it's boring to write about. At least on the last couple of Pumpkins records there has been some pleasure in watching the car crash; seeing Corgan drive in new directions is interesting at least, even if he tends to fail more often than not. Here it's like the fire's been put out and all I'm seeing is the hollow, burnt out shell. I don't know what it takes to impassion the band, they've been steady enough with their output and honestly not much seems to have changed in terms of Corgan's writing process. I think we're simply seeing the most underwhelming leg of their career.