Was there ever a real chance that the new Smashing Pumpkins album would be as powerful as their glory-day records?

Unlikely, but it is not a terrible experience to listen to the band trying to reclaim its days of glory by relying on a fair amount of tendencies that made it such a big 1990s alt-rock icon.

The first to be recorded by the reunited, almost-original lineup of main-man Billy Corgan, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and guitarist James Iha since Machina way back in 2000, the outrageously-titled Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. is a solid and compact record.

Shiny shows how the original members, or in this case Iha specifically, were crucial to the band’s sound, even if Corgan’s overbearing persona and strong musicality made it seem like they were not.

While Iha and original bass player D’Arcy may not have played much on those grunge-day records, the small parts they did have provided a perfect balance to Corgan’s particular sensibilities.

Whether it was the counter melodies and melodic lines Iha’s guitar delivered, or D’Arcy being outspoken regarding parts of songs she deemed too cheesy or simply not up to snuff, their absence resulted in the band’s post-2007 output.

Shiny is thus as realistically good as a new Smashing Pumpkins album can be expected at this point.

With Corgan having revived the name in 2007 alongside Chamberlin, who left in 2009 before returning in 2015, with new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who is still onboard here, the album’s got a lot of reestablishing to do and with its very short runtime.

The eight songs in Shiny feel economical while working well as a summary of the Pumpkins’ wide canvas of musicality.

From cyber-metal rock tunes like “Marchin’ On”, which really should have been the first single, nostalgia escapism of “Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)” to the very Pumpkins-esque longing melodies of “Travels”, Shiny could have done with a few more tracks to really flesh itself out. But it is far more solid that any Pumpkins fan who is honest with themselves could have expected.

Heck, even the theatrical baroque R&B sound of opener “Knights of Malta” works in its own silly way, as does the piano-driven, psych-disco “Alienation”.

The first “post-reunion” album Zeitgeist ( 2007 ) was an underwritten, overproduced “rawk” record that even Chamberlin’s thunderous drumming could not salvage.

Oceania ( 2012 ) was recorded with a completely different lineup that was musically capable but could not organically breathe life into the competent songwriting, and 2014’s Monuments to an Elegy was a half-hearted plea for mainstream acceptance recorded only by Corgan and drummer Tommy Lee from Mötley Crüe.

In between, there was the ongoing, likely-abandoned Teargarden in Kaleidoscope project, a projected 44-song collection of free singles that was never finished and never engaging.

So, it falls on Shiny to rekindle the magic that Corgan’s attitude has pretty much been spitting on since 2007.

Having practically insulted fellow 1990s acts for reuniting, dubbing them nostalgia acts, it is difficult not to take Corgan’s embrace of nostalgia with a little dose of cynicism. But that is all context, and Shiny, in and of itself, is a perfectly enjoyable alt-rock record performed by veterans of rock who know deeply how songs “work”.

For the first time in a while, Corgan works without much pretension.

There is no overarching concept to the album aside from it being a collection of songs written and recorded at a similar timeframe. This results in beautiful dream-rockers like “With Sympathy” — which features melodic twists that is very Machina-era Pumpkins — sitting nicely next to the glam-metal of “Seek and You Shall Destroy”.

While the band’s tendency to push itself conceptually and artistically has been commendable in its own way, Shiny benefits from the band’s members, in particular Corgan, accepting that his old tricks resonate for a reason.

Corgan’s melodies are definitely taken from his own songbook, soaring with emotionality and dynamics, while his and Iha’s guitar playing falls back to their old ways.

The solo in “Silvery Sometimes” alone is a major throwback moment in its straight-to-the-heart simplicity. And even the first official single “Solara” works in context, a celebration of the band’s world-dominating angst that may be a cheap shot at nostalgia but is punchy and immediate in the vacuum of Corgan’s antics.

All of these beg the question why Corgan, who knows a thing or two about production, did not go full-nostalgia and return to working with producers Alan Moulder, Flood or even better, Butch Vig, who produced the band’s 1993 masterpiece and breakthrough Siamese Dream.

Had these songs been flavored with the more textural, dreamier magic dust of those records, they would have soared.

Under famed producer Rick Rubin’s production, most of the things here — save for some Iha leads and fill-ins — are far too dry and Corgan’s vocals, while much better than in his recent years and mixed a little lower too, could have gained a lot of power with some more obvious textural effects.

“Marchin’ On” snarls through Corgan’s delivery and it is not just his throwback singing and the “rockness” of the track, but the way it sprinkles itself with effect filters, particularly in Corgan’s vocals.

This may be why another minus factor, Chamberlin’s drumming, also feels either held back or too virtuosic in a showy way that isn’t typically him. Perhaps he needed to adjust to the production, but these missing factors add up to a feeling that the record could have been so much more.

These production issues continue to plague the post-2007 Pumpkins output, but in Shine they feel particularly blemishing, as for the first time in a while, the songs are there. These are good Pumpkins-esque songs that could have been better executed, but at this point, it’s as good as it gets.

Whether the fans are okay with “good enough” is another thing.

____________________________

Smashing Pumpkins

Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. (Napalm)

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