Mixtape Wars: Mellon Collie

MIXTAPE WARS:
Mellon Collie
Austin vs. Nick

The challenge was simple. The much maligned Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness has fallen in stature over the years to its bright and shiny precursor Siamese Dream, and we intend to return the luster to the righteous behemoth by making condensing the work to a managable hour to appeal to those without the time to plunge through this two hour-plus epic. Whether we’ve been blinded by nostalgia is not worth getting into. But the task was hard.

Austin’s Mellon Collie:

1. Jelly Belly – This album is no longer an opus, it’s a kick-you-in-the-teeth rock album meant to surpass Siamese Dream so no starting out with that wimpy instrumental shit. We must start out with a bang.

2. Bullet With Butterfly Wings – In my opinion “Zero” is the perfect follower to "Jelly Belly", but in trying to change the feel of this album, to make it an album that somewhat matches up with it’s predecessor “Bullet” seemed the more logical choice.

3. Here Is No Why – On Siamese Dream “Today” cools things down but keeps the crunching guitars, which “Here is No Why” does as well as filling the coveted three spot with a one of the best tracks on the original album.

4. Love – This song is pushed further back on Dawn to Dusk but matches up with “Hummer” off Siamese Dream better than other tracks and it effectively keeps the crunch guitar effect going.

5. Zero – Best opening riff they have. With the previous four songs the listener should not get bored (a complaint most people have with the first two tracks of the original) and this song should kick the listener on his ass within five seconds.

6. Bodies – On Siamese Dream the Pumpkins really slow things down with “Disarm” in the six spot but for some reason I couldn’t give up the momentum the album’s been building to this point so I reached back to Twilight to Starlight and pulled this song way up.

7. 1979 – This is the best track on Mellon Collie and maybe in the Pumpkins entire catalogue, but by God they make you work for it on the original. They pushed it to the fifth track on the second disc, which added to the songs allure, as a listener you felt like you’d discovered it. I almost pushed it even farther back than seven, but I got anxious and while listening I found myself anticipating it far too much to wait longer than seven spots.

8. Muzzle – You need an uplifting song following “1979” not that it’s a depressing song but it sort of forces you inward and you need to be brought back out and this is probably one of the most uplifting songs the Pumpkins have recorded.

9. In The Arms of Sleep – For some reason I just couldn’t pick up the momentum after “Muzzle” my ears were tired and needed a break, this song was perfect.

10. Where Boys Fear To Tread – To be honest this song does sound a bit out of place, but I like it too much not to have it on the album. It works better when you know you still have a whole disc to follow it but serves to bring the slowness of “In The Arms of Sleep.”

11. Stumbeline – Both of these songs address the issues of loneliness and fear, just in completely different ways. So while they sounds completely different sonically I think the themes allow them to be side by side.

12. X.Y.U. – Siamese Dream had the eight minute “Silverfuck” so the new Mellon Collie needed a long rock song that was overindulgent. It came down to this one and “Thru the Eyes of a Ruby” and I’ve just always liked this one better.

13. To Forgive – The album’s run out of steam after “X.Y.U.” and all it can offer up is this tender song as a closer…

14. Tonight, Tonight – But wait! What’s this? Strings? What is this new sound emanating from the Pumpkins? It’s the sound that did open the original album and should have opened this one had I not been trying to create Siamese Dream II.

Total running time: 57:30

Nick’s Mellon Collie:

1. Tonight, Tonight
Well how else could it have started? The instrumental that starts the real album is really just an intro to the swelling strings that soar from this song. The song needs no explanation, it’s greatness, I don’t believe, is in any question. I thought briefly about stealing the b-side “Tonite Reprise” as sort of an intro to the real song, but half its charm is the hidden quality of discovering it for yourself. It should stay only with the devoted.

2. Muzzle
Deleting portions of the album was hard enough, but chopping it up felt like destroying steal. This song is number 12 on Dawn to Dusk. What I decided to do was place like minded material together, hoping to stretch a certain mood long enough, until it would eventually get destroyed by other styles. So the follow up to “Tonight, Tonight”’s soaring romance fell natural to the warm-hearted “Muzzle”. Probably a ballad in it’s inception, and played like one on their remarkable pre-farewell concert at Chicago’s United Center.

3. 1979
Continuing with the nostalgia trip comes a song that has only grown more remarkable each year. Putting it so close to the beginning feels little greedy, but I guess this is the point of the whole exercise.

4. Thirty-Three
Not necessarily the best song on the album, this one still probably comes closest to encapsulating the message of this album the best. It’s gorgeous melody and reaffirming chorus of “Love can last forever” hide some pretty troubled doubts that tinge the beautiful veneer. Most people will forever swear there love for Siamese Dream, but that one had always felt too cold. And this song is one of the prime examples of what was missing from the polished surface of its more reputable predecessor.

5. Jellybelly
Sometimes I get these sounds in my head that race back and forth like an electric wash where the noise just boils over. I have to hold my head because these loud noises start piercing the sides of my skull and I can’t stop shaking. It’s usually the opening to this song that I hear. I’m not sure if I wish I was in a band that could play this song, or that I’m going insane, but I do enjoy it for some reason.

6. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
By now, the dream-laden rush of the beginning of the disc is gone, and we are in the middle of rocking seriously. The great wonder of hearing all these songs together brings out the junior high student in me, when I first realized that all rock was not created equal, and that the bridge freak-out contained here is close to godliness.

7. Zero
As we peer further into the dark eyes of the beast, one thing becomes clear. Billy’s long phrased poetry that appears at the start of the disc has slowly disappeared to simple declarative ranting. Much has been written about the clumsy writing contained in this song, but that is only when the lyrics are removed from the cyber-punk background. Not everything is wonderfully explained in life, and dangerous thoughts are not always eloquent. That doesn’t make them any less powerful.

8. X.Y.U.
In High School, Eric and I would ride around at night listening to music in my car, and at least once a week we’d crank this song to the highest setting and yell as loudly as we could into the night air. The complete desolation you hear is no mask. This is the angriest song they’ve ever made. The power of this song might come from all guitars set at destroy and the drums mercilessness pounding, but the strength actually lies in the catchy melody of “And I said, I want to give you up”. One of the few take-no-prisoners rockers that could have been easily turned into a pop song. Though, thankfully, it was not.

9. Cupid De Locke
With no where to go but the fiery pits of hell, I decided to look up to the most heavenly song in the whole album. Not that it has much to do with god, but the lovely plucked strings and the sentimental romance give heart back to an album that had just looked like it wanted to kill your babies and eat them.

10. Galapagos
Really two in the same, number 9 and 10 belong together as they first appeared on the original for no other reason than they like two of the same. “Cupid’s” dream like narrative is fulfilled by “Galapagos’s” more human approach to love.

11. Stumbleine
If “Cupid” felt like the rush of young love, and “Galapagos” felt like the fight for innocence, then this one feels like acceptance of the dirty truth. That it remains so hopeful gives hope to the maturing attitude towards love that we all no is approaching but don’t really want to look for quite yet.

12. Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans
The most romantic of the epics is also the most mysterious. It doesn’t become audible till nearly 30 seconds in. I’ve always been drawn to its lovely stature, and it feels most at home with the rest of these odes. This combines the other three songs meditations on love, lust, and growing old, but throws in monster guitars, solos and whispering background noises.

13. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Surprised? It’s a lovely intro, but played at the end the sadness of the whole experience comes back to you. The roller-coaster ride through this album is nothing but an emotional trip through nostalgia, heartbreak, and ultimately love. Because this album is really just a concept album to trying to sort through your own emotions. That’s why I love this album so much. And for some reason ending with this song is like the rolling of the credits. Seemingly unnecessary but moving at the same time.

Total running time: 56:30