The Smashing Pumpkins: Adore (2LP, 180g) [HIP-O RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set is remastered from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl with the original artwork. Adore earned the band their third straight Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Performance.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered from the original master tapes
• Original artwork
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

After the guitar storms of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the electronic shimmer of "1979" pointed the way forward. Billy Corgan followed it, trading walls of distortion for drum machines, piano, acoustic guitars and synths, and Rolling Stone's Greg Kot called the result a complete break with the past. Corgan started out with simple acoustic demos in early 1997, then reworked them into a hybrid of folk rock and electronica.

Corgan, James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky made it without a permanent drummer, and the mood is hushed, gothic and widescreen. "Ava Adore" slinks along on a mechanical beat, "Perfect" is a bright, bittersweet cousin of "1979," "To Sheila" opens on a soft acoustic sigh, and "Tear" and "Shame" go big and dramatic. "For Martha," Corgan's eight-minute tribute to his mother, is one of the most moving things the band ever recorded.

MTV called it one of the most anticipated albums of 1998, and it has since built a devoted cult following. It's the Pumpkins album for late nights and long drives, ideally with nobody in the passenger seat asking to change the station.

Also at Kops: more The Smashing Pumpkins on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Virgin, a reissue of the 1998 album.