Smashing Pumpkins’ Adore, the follow-up to their mega-successful 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, fans were puzzled by its lack of rock guitars, its folk and electronic elements and relative intimacy. Even the album title was misunderstood. “The funny thing was [it] was a joke that no one ever got,” says Billy Corgan, explaining that Adore was meant as a play on “A Door.”In other words, Adore offered a new entrance to the band’s career, as Corgan experimented with and without the band–whose drummer (and Billy’s musical confidant), Jimmy Chamberlin’s absence played as large a role as his presence might have in the making of the record. The highly personal Corgan songs reflected on the then-recent loss of his mother (“For Martha,” “Once Upon a Time”), his divorce and female issues (“Ava Adore,” “Crestfallen,” “Pug,” “Annie Dog”) and some of the most incisive lyrics he’s ever written (“Blank Pages”).More than 15 years later, Adore - part of the continuing series of reissues of the iconic alternative band’s acclaimed catalog via Virgin/Ume - stands the test of time or as Rolling Stone writer David Wild calls it, “the surprisingly beautiful sound of a great band falling apart.” Tracklisting: To Sheila Ava Adore Perfect Daphne Descends Once Upon A Time Tear Crestfallen Appels + Oranjes Pug The Tale Of Dusty And Pistol Pete Annie-Dog Shame Behold! The Night Mare For Martha Blank Page 17
