Original video located here. Accessed 29th October 2025
Song title: Zero
Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Year: 1995
Why I like this song:
This years marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Smashing Pumpkins seminal album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. So with many other people posting their own thought on it, I may as well throw my own hat into the ring.
Like many people, that album was my entry point to the Smashing Pumpkins. At the time, my older brother played it many times over insistent that it was something special. At first I didn't know what to make of it but, slowly but surely, I was won over.
It is well documented that Billy Corgan wanted to make an album for teenagers. Granted at the time he had long ceased being a teenager but what did it matter? I came away thinking Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was the greatest thing ever and it really spoke to me as a confused teen. And it certainly had some bite that the other music at the time lacked.
I recently sat down and revisited Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness- this time in a new light. Granted I had no place listening to an album designed for specifically for teenagers but I was willing to see if it still held up. This time however, I took a different approach in that I followed the track order dictated by the vinyl release.
And that turned out to be a wise decision: True what was once familiar may now be presented in a jarring light but it works. The listing swings from soft to hard and what I once skipped over now now is seen with more appreciation. And the run of Where Boys Fear to Tread, Zero and An Ode to No One is bloody effective.
So it may be a new approach to material three decades old but it still has plenty of bite.