The Smashing Pumpkins release the 30th anniversary edition of their classic album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

The Smashing Pumpkins are back (sort of), returning with a 30th anniversary edition of their classic album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, an alternative rock Bible of the ‘90s music scene.

Released in 1995, the original double album featured 28 tracks, which was generally unusual at the time, especially in the alt-rock and grunge scenes of the era. Billy Corgan, the band’s frontman, cited The Beatles’ self-titled “white” album and Pink Floyd’s The Wall, both double albums, as inspiration.

After the success of their major label debut, Siamese Dream, The Smashing Pumpkins felt pressure from both their record company and themselves to create a grander, more commercially successful album. The grunge genre was also moving away from the forefront of the music world, mostly due to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994 leaving a void in the grunge space, and new musical styles like alt-rock and hip-hop capturing more attention.

All of these outside factors culminated in The Smashing Pumpkins firing their producer, Butch Vig, and working with popular British producers Flood and Alan Moulder instead. After around eight months of work, the band’s magnum opus was done.

The album has two halves representing both day and night. Corgan saw Mellon Collie as a way to bid farewell to his youth, attempting to encapsulate what he had felt as an adolescent and young adult while conveying the concept of “mortal sorrow.”

The opening titular track is a winding piano tune that starts the album like a sunrise. “Tonight, Tonight” acts as a transition between the peaceful piano and heavier rock of “Jellybelly.”

Staying with that sound is “Zero,” one of the album’s highlights. Much of “Zero” connects to that feeling of adolescence, as the lyrics often read like an angsty poem Corgan wrote years ago. The lines “Intoxicated with the madness / I’m in love with my sadness” tie back to the record’s core idea of “infinite sadness,” while also poking fun at the intense seriousness of the lyrics.

Another hit from the album, “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” is a sharp grunge track about an infinite cycle with no escape, as Corgan endlessly sings about feeling like a “rat in a cage.” This song’s head-banging instrumentation immediately cools down after the next track, “To Forgive.”

The track “Love” introduces synths to the album, another aspect that sets Mellon Collie apart from the standard grunge records of the era. Continuing with the strange instrumentation, “Cupid De Locke” opens with winding, repeating harp melodies, creating a mystical sound that resembles the album’s cover art.

One of the gentlest songs on the album, “Take Me Down,” marks the end of the album’s first half. Fittingly, it sounds like a sun setting, with a slow chord progression and quiet, almost falsetto-like vocals throughout the track.

“Where Boys Fear To Tread” immediately brings the album back to a dark sound. It is surprisingly one of the least listened-to tracks on Mellon Collie, but shares many similarities with “Zero.”

“1979,” the band’s most famous song, almost never made it onto the album. The track’s electronically-manipulated instrumentation made it stand out against the heavier rock songs, and its endlessly nostalgic sound and lyrics about youth make it clear why “1979” became their most well-known track.

The last song on the original 1995 album is “Farewell And Goodnight.” The song is almost a lullaby, and comes full circle by returning to a piano melody like the opening track.

The 30th anniversary edition features all of these songs first, followed by live versions of 11 Mellon Collie tracks and two live cuts of Smashing Pumpkins songs from other albums. All of these live recordings are from 1996, a year after the album was originally released.

Since there are no new songs on the album, the average music listener or casual fan may not be particularly interested in this release. Besides beautiful new album art, this record appeals most to diehard Smashing Pumpkins fans who want to hear the band performing at its peak.

If nothing else, this edition could introduce the ’90s classic to a new generation of listeners, keeping The Smashing Pumpkins relevant in this ever-evolving music landscape.