The Smashing Pumpkins
Thirty Three

THE REVIEW

1995, melancholy and infinite sadness, double album, 28 tracks, 5 singles extracted that can be defined as true mini albums; I would say a productive period of utmost grace for the Chicago band.

"Thirty Three" is the last single of the series, intriguing like its predecessors, if not for the incredible "The Aeroplane Flies High (Turn Left, Looks Right)", which stands tall looking down on all the other b-sides: a low-frequency announcement heralds a thunderous and distorted wall of sound, which mellows with the same acoustic riff accompanied by shadowy vocals, only to reemerge in the imposing chorus.

We witness a progressive ride heading in the same direction as Mogwai, stunning. An alternative "Transformer" follows, with its rhythmic groove that subsequently distorts, pulling the hair of troubled teenagers. The foggy atmospheres of "The Bells" have James Iha on vocals; along with "The Last Song" it represents the most intimate interlude of the album; in this last song, we can imagine Billy Corgan sitting on his bed, with his guitar, after spending the usual melancholy day, expressing all his decadentism in solitude, only to find moral support in the guitar solo from his father. "My Blue Heaven" is romantic; it transports you to the gramophones of the 30s, with its delicate singing and the cello wrapping around the piano keys.

Even the single "Thirty Three" takes you back in time, to memories of an adolescence filled with romantic transgressions and fluctuating emotions; decadent and helpless, melancholically repressed but unique: "the sun is out and up and down again".