Lyric discussion by sevinteen 

Cover art for Oceania lyrics by Smashing Pumpkins, The

Once again, wrong lyrics XD but that's ok, because i know the correct ones.

it's strange, the album it totally different from pre-Oceania, to post-Oceania. less reliance on power-chords, more unique beats and riffs, (ESPECIALLY Pale Horse.) i love the 3 solos' at the end, they feel so cold and quick. i would love to know if Schroeder did any of them, because it doesn't sound like Billy's sound, you know? a truelly amazing song, "I'm so alone, so alone, but better then i ever was.." is a really cool analogy of the missing band. IN MY OPINION, Billy's better off without the old band. they didn't help in any of the other albums anyway, they were just his puppets for concerts. but Oceania (the album) sounds like it was highly influenced by the new band, like Billy let them actually DO stuff! maybe he loosened up over the years. anyway, they made a great album like they haven't done since '95. a perfect Pumpkin lineup. a variety of different sounds, ALL unique in their own way, yet making a few subliminal references to other songs, (IE: Quasar's opening riff is like Cherub Rock's opening riff; Panopticon is kind of like Bodies, in some ways.) maybe i'll go through Mellon Collie song-by-song one day.

Oceania is a great song, but it's kind stretched. i would much rather have a 5-minute Unique master-piece, than a 9-minute, beat-the-dead-horse distortion party. on second thought, thats exactly what Starla is, but i absolutely LOVE Starla. on third thought, Nine minutes is EXACTLY what Oceania NEEDED. the only really long song is Oceania, and that's great. if you don't like long-songs, don't listen to it. but if you like the Smashing Pumpkins, then you KNOW that they are really good at long songs (Silverfuck, Starla, Geek U.S.A, United States). when you look back on it, Oceania sounds like it's divided into multiple parts. and the Oceania-riff is mysteriously painful sounding. Billy said "I wanted to make an album like the 90s; i would think, how did i make a rock song in the 90s? how would i make an emotional song in the 90s? how would i make a slow song in the 90s" and so on. so he is really going back to his roots, by going through and Re-mastering Gish and Siamese Dream, he was finding out how he used to think, and THAT'S how Oceania was born.

Song Meaning