Album for this week is "Mellon Collie and the infinite Sadness", by the Smashing Pumpkins. This is a truly amazing album, it's rare that a double CD comes out without having a whole bunch of obvious "filler" songs, this one seems to have a couple that are below the standard of the rest of the album and even then the gap in quality is small and these songs are far from unlistenable. It's a fantastic album, with a great many fantastic songs which show the amazing range of styles used by the Pumpkins, from the softer tones of "Tonight, Tonight" to the harsh guitar and screaming of the next three songs, notably the complex riff of "here is no why". The next portion of the album continues from "Bullet with Butterfly wings" a truly amazing song, with the screaming and intense frustration of the chorus, with a sense of tamed violence in the verses maintained by the relative silence of the guitar, the softer vocals and the almost non-existant drums. This idea of anger is turned on it's head by the next song, perhaps symbolic of the way in which anger subsides so quickly and leaves the previously enraged feeling a little empty again, and sometimes a little stupid due to things said in the heat of the moment. The anger returns with "An Ode to No One" (one of my least favourite songs, probably a little due to the fact that the vocals are a little out of the singers range). "Love" comes next and it's a great song, still angry but now as much with self as with any other. The next song has a fantastic piano part, combined with the harps to make the song very peaceful, the spoken part is all that makes this song only four stars, since it's really quite annoying due to the sudden and excessive increase in volume for the speaker only, overtaking the rest of the music. Galapogos is also peaceful, with more energy but without breaking the quiet. "Muzzle" is far more energetic but without the anger and fury of "Zero" and that it's ilk. "Porcelina of the Oceans" get's removed from my playlists for the slow start I'm afraid, since once it get's going it's not at all bad. It has some of the anger but also the quieter mood, almost like a refleciton of the album up to this point. "Take Me Down" finishes the first disc, on a quiet note with ambience, almost as if this were an end to the album as a whole. It almost feels to me as if this were a siesta of sorts in the theme of the day. If so "Where Boys fear to tread" is waking up annoyed and grumpy for the beginning of the second disc with a threatening heavily distorted guitar. "Bodies" is also energetic but more lucid, the lyrics being stronger but a little drowned out by the guitar, which is similar to the previous song at points. "Thirty-Three" is calmer again, leaving behind the anger of the two songs prior. "In the Arms of Sleep" is also quiet. "1979" is a great song with a pleasant tone, mid-energy it does feel like getting ready for a party. "Tales of a scorched Earth" brings the rage, with the guitar played fast and strong, unfortunately it isn't such a great song since it lacks organization, feeling like an amateur teenaged garage band with little real skill at putting a song together, but rather all trying to outshine one another. "Thru the eyes of Ruby" is a much better song then the previous one, with a wailing guitar intro leading into use of a more ambient effect, returning to the strength of previous songs later in the song, showing the excellent contrast used by the Pumpkins to such great effect. Stumbleine is one of the better songs from the album, full of a quiet reflectivity and observational tone, a true detachment, much more lucid and sober than the rest of the album with a gorgeous guitar part with a single note approach rather than the power chords of previous songs. "x.y.u" is stronger again using the technique of heavily accenting the first note of the bar giving an erratic feel, the near-scream of the vocals breaking into the full yell of the onomatapoeic portions showing where My Chemical Romance may have gotten the idea for all of their songs. "We Only Come out at Night" is a great song, simple melody and rhythm reminiscent of the feeling of walking out of the party into the night air, tired but happy feeling bigger and stronger than the nervous tentative self who enters a party or event. "Beautiful" is also a soft, slow song not overly complicated but not too sparse either. "Lily (My one and only)" has a very simple rhythm with a delicious beat. "By Starlight" is quite ambient, with slow bass pulses and soft strummed guitar. "Farewell and Goodbye" is nice, it feels a lot like the end credits song of a movie, fitting since it's the end of the album. all in all, I give this album 5 stars out of five.