Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Totally Explained

Everything about Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness totally explained

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is the third album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released on October 24, 1995 on Virgin Records. Produced by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, Flood and Alan Moulder, the 28-track album was released as a two-disc CD and triple LP. Led by the single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", the album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, a first for the group. The album spawned four more singles over the course of 1996 and has been certified nine times platinum.
Praised by critics for its ambition and scope, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness earned the band seven Grammy Award nominations in 1997. The album was voted the 29th greatest album of all time in 1998 by Q magazine readers.

Recording and production

After the 13-month Siamese Dream tour, Corgan immediately began writing songs for the band's third album. From the outset, the band intended the new record to be a double album. Corgan said, "We almost had enough material to make Siamese Dream a double album. With this new album, I really liked the notion that we'd create a wider scope in which to put other kinds of material we were writing." Corgan felt that the band's musical approach was running its course, and wanted the band to approach the album as if it were its last. Corgan described the album at the time to the music press as "The Wall for Generation X", a comparison with Pink Floyd's famous two-LP concept album.
The band decided to forgo working with Butch Vig, who had produced the group's previous albums, and selected Flood and Alan Moulder as co-producers. Corgan explained, "To be completely honest, I think it was a situation where we'd become so close to Butch that it started to work to our disadvantage [.. .] I just felt we'd to force the situation, sonically, and take ourselves out of normal Pumpkin recording mode. I didn't want to repeat past Pumpkin work." At these sessions, the band recorded rough rhythm tracks with Flood. Originally designed to create a rough draft for the record, the rehearsal space sessions ended up becoming the new album's foundation.
Corgan sought to eliminate the tension that permeated the Siamese Dream recording sessions. Corgan said regarding the problems with recording Siamese Dream, "[T]o me, the biggest offender was the insidious amounts of time that everyone spends waiting for guitar parts to be overdubbed. There were literally weeks where no one had anything to do but sit and wait." The band decided to counter idleness by using two recording rooms at the same time. This tactic allowed Corgan to work on vocals and song arrangements in one room, while second guitarist James Iha recorded lead guitar parts in the other. James Iha commented,

The big change is that Billy isn't being the big 'I do this-I do that.' It's much better. The band arranged a lot of songs for this record, and the song writing process was organic. The circumstances of the last record and the way that we worked was really bad.

When the recording sessions concluded, the band had 57 completed songs which were up for contention to be included on Mellon Collie, according to statements in interviews. This culminated in a double album release featuring 28 songs, with the 5 main singles being backed by the remaining 23 songs. The album was going to have 32 songs, but this was cut back to the 28 songs. Bassist D'arcy Wretzky recorded numerous backup vocal parts which were all cut, except those recorded for "Beautiful." She also sings in "Farewell and Goodnight."

Music

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is a loose concept album, with the songs intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. The sprawling nature of the album means that it utilizes several different diverse styles amongst the songs, contrasting what some critics felt was the "one dimensional flavor" of the previous two albums. The album was eventually certified 9.8 times platinum in the United States. At the time, the album was the best-selling double album of the decade.
Christopher John Farley of Time called the album "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet". Farley wrote, "One gets the feeling that the band [.. .] charged ahead on gut instincts; the sheer scope of the album (28 songs) didn't allow for second-guessing or contrivance." Time selected Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as the best album of the year in its year-end "Best of 1995" list. Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A rating; reviewer David Browne praised the group's ambition and wrote, "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is more than just the work of a tortured, finicky pop obsessive. Corgan presents himself as one of the last true believers: someone for whom spewing out this much music results in some sort of high art for the ages. He doesn't seem concerned with persistent alterna-rock questions of 'selling out,' and good for him: He's aiming for something bigger and all-conquering." Rolling Stone gave the album three out of five stars. Reviewer Jim DeRogatis praised the album as "one of the rare epic rock releases whose bulk is justified in the grooves". The writer stated that the album's main flaw was Corgan's lyrics, describing the songwriter as "wallowing in his own misery and grousing about everyone and everything not meeting his expectations." While DeRogatis contended that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness "may even match The Wall in it sonic accomplishments", he argued that Corgan's lyrics lacked in comparison. Mojo reviewer Ben Edmunds also praised the music while criticizing Corgan's lyrics. Edmunds wrote, "[Corgan's] lyrics appear to be the repository for the worst aspects of his most treasured influences. He writes with a heavy metal aptitude for wordplay and an inflated prog-rock conviction of its worth, a deadening combination. But there's a sliver of distance in his rage-mongering now that comments as well as expresses.
The album spawned five singles. While Corgan considered issuing "Jellybelly" as the album's first single, he told Chart it was passed over in favor of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" because "'Bullet's one of those songs where, you know, it's easy to sing along to and [heaffects a drawl] ya gotta sell them records." "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" was The Smashing Pumpkins' first single to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 22. "1979", the album's second single, charted at number 12, becoming the band's highest-charting American hit. The "Zero" single was released as an EP with six b-sides. All three of these singles were certified gold by the RIAA. "Tonight, Tonight" and "Thirty-Three", the album's fourth and final singles, reached number 36 and number 39 on the Billboard charts, respectively. The group was nominated for Album of the Year, Record of the Year ("1979"), Best Alternative Music Performance, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal ("1979"), Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), Best Pop Instrumental Performance ("Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness") and Best Music Video, Short Form ("Tonight, Tonight") at the 1997 Grammy Awards. The band won a single award, for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"; it was the group's first. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness also ranked at number 14 on the 1995 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

Packaging

Art direction for the album is credited to Frank Olinsky and Billy Corgan. The actual illustrations are digital collages put together by John Craig. The design for the album cover was inspired by a combination of the face from the painting Fidelity by Jean Baptiste Greuze and the body from the painting Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Raphael.
Corgan described the album's title as "just another one of those pretentious Pumpkin album titles continuing the long line of pretension." The Phoenix Meets the Dwarf, Basketball Land, and Baseball City. | 1 |- | 1995 | Australian Album Chart | 1 |- | 1995 | New Zealand Album Charts | 1 |- | 1995 | UK Album Charts | 4 |- | 1995 | Australian Highest Selling Albums | 14 |- | 1995 | German Album Charts | 21 |}

Country	Sales	Certification
United States (RIAA)	4,700,000

Personnel

Billy Corgan – lead vocal, guitar, piano, producer, mixer, string arrangement on "Tonight, Tonight", art direction and design

James Iha – guitar, additional credits for "Take Me Down" and "Farewell and Goodnight": vocals, mixing and additional production

D'Arcy Wretzky – bass, vocals on "Beautiful" and "Farewell and Goodnight"

Jimmy Chamberlin – drums, vocals on "Farewell and Goodnight"

Flood – producer, mixer

Alan Moulder – producer, mixer

Chicago Symphony Orchestra – orchestra in "Tonight, Tonight"

Audrey Riley – string arrangement on "Tonight, Tonight"

Greg Leisz – pedal and lap steel guitar on "Take Me Down"

Chris Shepard – recording

Claudine Pontier – recording assistance

Dave Kresl – string recording assistance

Barry "Sounds Like Gold" Goldberg – additional vocal recording, mixing assistance

Howie Weinberg – mastering

Frank Olinsky – art direction and design

John Craig – illustration

Andrea Giacobbe – photograph

Jeff Moleski – technical assistance

Russ Spice – technical assistance

Tim "Gooch" Lougee – technical assistance

Adam Green – technical assistance

Roger Carpenter – technical assistance

Guitar Dave Mannet – technical assistanceFurther Information

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