#ogilala

Billy Corgan - Ogilala

Back in the days of reckoning, also known as the nineties, The Smashing Pumpkins were a true force of musical power. While their rise can be credited to a certain musical innovation, use of the ‘pumpkin chord’ and the distinctively fuzzy sound of a blaring Stratocaster. The undoubted factor that saw the birth of both multi-platinum and diamond selling ‘Siamese Dream’ and ‘Mellon Collie of the Infinite Universe’ was Billy Corgan. Known as one of the more controversial artists of his genre, Billy is no stranger to both positive and negative media. But whether it’s his political views on conspiracy theories or particularly unique voice, rock fans seem split down the middle when deciding if he is an icon or a has been. Ogilala, then, was clearly a chance taken to repent, as many artists have done so before, on his past behaviours. Maybe even for the recent less successful return of the pumpkins with their poorly selling 2014 album ‘Monuments to an elegy’ and live shows thereafter which somewhat lacked the previous pumpkin energy and band co-operation as Corgan tried to fill in the empty gaps of the original members.

If you go back and listen to tracks from the past, you can easily find formulas that just worked for Corgan and his emotional style of song writing. Tracks like ‘Cherub Rock’ and ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings’ show the aggression that drenched 90’s alt-rock and grunge, featuring Jimmy Chamberlin’s heavy backbone drum sound sitting nicely alongside the shoegazing solo’s and riffs (A term that was pushed to one side due to the rise of the media dominant grunge bands) that showed a sort of ferocity in their music.

By the time Mellon Collie had released, Corgan had experimented with more ambitious music styles in the softer almost hallucinogenic tracks of ‘Soma’ and ‘Disarm’ which saw elements of orchestral work thrown in, later evolving into a grand symphonic anthem of ‘Tonight, Tonight’ which only helped solidify the four as true progressive rock stars.

Corgan, now going by the more upstage title of William Patrick Corgan, tries to replicate this softer, eerie sound, which he has cultivated to match his iconic harsh voice in this new solo revival. While he does so as successfully as he has before, you cannot help but feel like the album seems slightly empty, and you are left to anticipate the unmistakable crash of two signature guitars which just never arrives. Despite this, I would argue that changing and experimenting is very much just Corgan’s style, which allows me to appreciate the confessional lyrics and excellent piano playing in lead single ‘Aeronaut’ among others.