The Smashing Pumpkins – ‘ATUM’ review: bombastic space-rock opera with anthems

5 May, 2023

Smashing Pumpkins

You’ve gotta hand it to him, Billy Corgan really doesn’t do things by halves. Having already released two albums with The Smashing Pumpkins following the return of three quarters of the band in recent years, he’s now unleashed a colossal sci-fi-inspired rock opera. Entitled ‘ATUM’ – pronounced autumn – this is the band’s 12th studio album, features 33 tracks spread across three acts, two of which have already landed on streaming platforms in recent months.

Billed as a sequel to 1995’s ‘Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness’ and 2000’s ‘Machina / The Machines Of God’ this concept record is presented like an ’80s sci-fi movie and plays out like one, too; each song forms part of a long running narrative about a central character exiled in space. That in itself is a whole other story, and one that the Pumpkins frontman shares in forensic detail on his podcast Thirty-Three With William Patrick Corgan, for those who are interested.

As for the tracks on this LP, they are more guitar-based than the band’s 2020 album ‘CYR’ but Corgan has brought the swathe of synths that dominated that record along for the ride too. For every rock anthem like ‘Butterfly Suite’, ‘Beguiled’ and ‘Empires’, there is a synth-driven counterpart in ‘Hooligan’, ‘Neophyte’ and ‘To The Grays’ – this is supposed to be a space-rock opera, after all.

By the time ‘ATUM’ reaches its third and final act, the songs tread a more complex, epic and soundtrack-based path. Lengthy opener ‘Sojourner’ for instance wouldn’t sound out of place on Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and Blade Runner’s scores, as eerie keys conjure up visions of a giant space ship floating above and Corgan is backed by an all alien female voice choir.

‘Intergalactic’, meanwhile, is even more widescreen and ethereal, as brooding synths bounce back and forth over the Pumpkins frontman before giving way to a cosmic cacophony of tribal drum beats. While the final act is a bit out there, it isn’t devoid of songs dashed with immediacy: he pulsating ‘Pacer’ and spine tingling ‘Spellbinding’ for example, are both stirring numbers in their own right.

As albums go, ‘ATUM’ is an ambitious body of work and does ask a lot of its audience. But there’s also plenty on here to please any diehard Pumpkins fan.