Smashing Pumpkins
Gish

THE REVIEW

The Smashing Pumpkins' flight began with this album in May '91, from a band that started with nothing, as the script demands, and made a name for themselves show after show in shabby Chicago venues, eventually landing a deal with Virgin, with a bit of indispensable luck, after almost signing with Sub Pop.

Recorded in forty-one days, at the time guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy were a couple in real life, with Billy Corgan as the still inexperienced composer of every track and Matt Chamberlain on drums.

The following fourteen months spent on tour served to strengthen the chemistry between the four in anticipation of the seminal second album "Siamese Dream"; meanwhile, here we find many good ideas, scattered mostly in the first part, with dreamy riffs and breaks that would become their trademark in the years to come.

Worth mentioning is their first single "I Am One," a declaration of youthful brotherhood, as well as "Siva" and "Rhinoceros," which have become constant features in their live shows over the years.

Curiously noteworthy is the folk-sounding and final "Daydream," sung by the bassist because, according to Corgan, she possessed a colder and "distant" tone, ideal for closing an album still logically immature but already lysergically fascinating.