Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

I fell out of love with this album for a long time, the Pumpkins were great with Gish and Siamese dream. But to add to a collection I bought this. The artwork and presentation is second to none, yes its expensive but over 4 disks with a full lyrics book and also art book going behind the scenes of the album creation I can now truly appreciate the masterpiece this is. A must for Pumpkins fans, the vinyl boxset is a piece of art.

I adore Mellon Collie. It's utterly bonkers, especially in today's sanitised modern download age. The Smashing Pumpkins' finest hour, Mellon Collie shows the talent of Billy Corgan at it's creative peak, churning out brilliant alternative rock songs for fun. Most of the Pumpkins' classics are to be found on this album, showcasing their vast range of stylistic talents. "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", "Tonight, Tonight", "Jellybelly", "Zero", "Bodies", "1979", "Stumbleine", "Here is No Why" all of them are crammed onto the two discs of Mellon Collie. It's 28 tracks aren't all perfect, as you'd have to expect with an album of this size. If anything, this adds to the character of the album. There isn't much filler, but what filler there is generally showcases over-ambition, a character trait that is rare in today's rock scene (or the entire music world in my opinion.) Personally, I find the second disc (Twilight to Starlight) to be marginally stronger than the first, feeling more focused but the more famous songs, by and large are to be found on disc one (Dawn to Dusk). Albums like this prove the naysayers that the 90's were a Limp Bizkit filled dirge, awash with boybands, girlbands and shiny, autotuned pop. Along with Nirvana's "Nevermind", "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" is the joint finest rock album of the 1990's and one of the very greatest ever produced. It's ambition should be applauded, the guts of including acoustic ballads alongside piano led instrumentals to fit around the blistering riff driven rock. The artwork and inserts are beautifully unique in their softly painted style, as is the designs adorning each disc. Perhaps when those who decide trends set upon a nineties revival, this album will be elevated to the status it deserves. It should be in the top ten of any magazine or website's best album lists. Sadly I've yet to see it mentioned. Embrace ambition, embrace talent at it's most precocious, bombastic and gutsy. Buy and love Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

I have always been a fan of alternative rock, The Smashing Pumpkins are one of my favourite bands that fit into that category, their first two albums were good, but their third: 'Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness' is an absolute masterpiece. It is not an easy task to put together a quality double album and pull it off, more often or not it is a even mixture of good songs and filler (sometimes consisting more of the latter), but this is one of those rare exceptions. As soon as I started playing this album, I was blown away from the start. Perhaps the best known songs are the wonderful, orchestral 'Tonight, Tonight', and the hard rock gem 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings'. There is something for everyone, there are some many different styles to choose from, from heavy rock to mellower tracks and gorgeous ballads. There is a perfect balance of styles and the lyrics by the singer Billy Corgan, who can sing such a variety of songs effortlessly, have so much meaning and depth. The album spawned hit singles (including the aforementioned) and a Grammy win to boot. With a total of 28 songs, to say that this was an ambitious project was an understatement, but The Smashing Pumpkins released their greatest, never-to-be beaten work with 'Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness'. Buy it immediately for it is truly an amazing album.

Lovely quality box set, well presented with quality inners. All delivered in good time!

This is going to be short and sweet. As most will be aware of this album already, and for many years as well, it's greatness will be widespread. Funny how, on it's release, a lot of people had issues with its not being anything like Siamese Dream and too conventional. On reflection, this is still a valid point but it has also evolved over the years into what is now an essential chapter in the Pumpkins' back catalogue. It is different to SD, but it is also just as good. There are too many tracks to do a track-by-track breakdown but the obvious highlights are: 'Tonight, Tonight', 'Zero', 'Bullet...', 'Thirty Three' and '1979'. The not so obvious highlights (of which there are many) are: The title track, 'Here Is No Why', 'To Forgive', 'An Ode To No One', 'Galapagos', 'Muzzle', 'Porcelina...', 'In The Arms of Sleep' and 'Through the Eyes of Ruby'. Phew! It does tend to get slightly mawkish towards the latter half of the 2nd disc but the songs are all still winners. It's a long album but one that hits its stride running, has no fat whatsoever and exhibits both the lighter and darker sides of the band's music and songwriting. They have yet to make an album as good as this or SD since (at time of writing 2011) but this will do nicely.

There are some really Cool songs on this Awesome album like Bullet with butterfly wings what a chin, also "Tonight tonight is really cool and album track Bodies. I,x give this album an 8 out of ten as some of the songs are a bit slow I prefer heavier catchy songs but Bullet with butterfly Wings is brilliant... What a gem.

It's absolutely beautiful. The books and the artwork are a joy. Everything my little xenial heart could want from a vinyl release of this beloved album.

I've of the all time greatest albums ever produced. Great price at last. Finally available on vinyl reissue at an affordable price due to resent repressed box sets produced

素晴らしいありがとうございました。 :)

Masterpiece album

Tweede CD die ik heb besteld bij Amazon, weer stuk aangekomen, retourneren kan vervolgens niet zonder creditcard!

The records arrived on time and boxed. There was a small crack to one of the seams on the box, but that is a risk with these things. Didn’t even notice it until fully unwrapped. The sound quality seems great to me and the as I indicated in the title amazing artwork on the covers of the albums.

Dass Mellon Collie... ein absoluter Klassiker der Musikgeschichte ist, ist in vielen anderen Rezensionen schon ausführlich beschrieben worden. Dem schließe ich mich vorbehaltlos an. Kurz meine wichtigsten Pluspunkte zusammengefasst: Sehr abwechslungsreich und trotzdem homogen, bretthart an Stellen an denen es bretthart sein muss und kurz danach schon wieder höchst melodisch, Einflüsse aus allen möglichen Spielarten moderner Rock-Musik, klasse Texte, Hits (1979, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Tonight Tonight um nur die wichtigsten zu nennen) undsoweiter undsoweiter. Wie gesagt: Meisterstück. Das Remastering ist gelungen, wenn auch kein Quantensprung in meinen Ohren - ich mochte auch die ursprüngliche Fassung, insofern stört es mich nicht, dass diese neue Edition nicht komplett anders aus den Boxen tönt. Was die Vinyl-Edition angeht, habe ich sehr unterschiedliches gelesen, und möchte deshalb kurz meinen Wissensstand und meine Erfahrung mit dieser Box weitergeben. Besonders wichtig ist der Umstand, dass es zwei Varianten gibt: Eine amerikanische und eine europäische Pressung. Die amerikanische Pressung steht schwer in der Kritik (wie hier auch von einem anderen Rezensenten, der seine Box bei amazon in Amerika gekauft hat, bereits angemerkt), weil sie oft schon im Werkszustand wellig ist und an vielen Stellen "zerrt", vor allem gegen Ende der jeweiligen Seiten. Die europäische Ausgabe hat dieses "Zerr"-Problem so nicht, weil sie deutlich mehr "Deadwax", also mehr Auslaufrille hat. Ich war davon ausgegangen, dass amazon.de (und damit meine ich wirklich amazon, keine Marketplace-Anbieter) die europäische Version anbietet, und deshalb habe ich es einfach mal gewagt, zumal der Preis zu jenem Zeitpunkt deutlichst reduziert war (51 Euro - immernoch viel Geld aber im Vergleich zum Originalpreis ein Schnäppchen). Und das war goldrichtig. Ich bekam die europäische Version mit hervorragend gepresstem, schwerem Vinyl (keine Welle, kein Leiern, kein Zerren, kein Knistern) - so wie man es sich wünscht und wie man es bei einer solchen Deluxe-Ausgabe auch erwarten darf. Die Box als solche ist wunderbar gestaltet: Harte 12" Box mit Prägedruck, mit den vier Vinylen (jeweils in eigenen Hüllen mit den Collagen-Motiven, die aus dem CD-Booklet bekannt sind, inkl. Innenhüllen) plus 2 Bücher (ein Textbuch und ein Buch mit Liner Notes). Einziger Mini-Kritikpunkt: Das Liner-Notes-Buch ist offensichtlich dasselbe, das auch bei der Deluxe-CD-Edition enthalten ist, weil hier ausführlich auch auf die beim Vinyl nicht enthaltenen Bonustracks eingegangen wird. Das führt natürlich nicht zur Abwertung, ist aber ein wenig befremdlich. Alles in allem bin ich froh, dass ich mich nicht auf die, meist auf die amerikanische Version bezogenen, schlechten Kritiken verlassen und diese Box gekauft habe. Ich habe da ein echtes Schmuckstück bekommen, das ich so schnell nicht freiwillig wieder hergeben werde.