End of the album. I'll give my thoughts on Wildflower and then on the album as a whole.
As far as Wildflower...
I think it's about acceptance, forgiveness, and moving on.
Wildflower in the wilderness outside
take your chance with love and laughter
I'm big into song titles, especailly with the Pumpkins.
A wildflower is a flower that blooms, but was not intended to do so. It is a seed that was not planted, but from which a flower grew.
In some ways I think the entire album Oceania is a bit of a wildflower and here is where I will go into my recap of the entire album as a whole.
Billy began the Teagarden project in August of 2009 and Billy and the Pumpkins vision was to release songs individually.
In 2010 Billy started dating Jessica Origliasso from the Veronicas (who is from Queensland, Australlia... which is part of the Oceania region). They split in June of 2012 and Oceania was released in June.
I believe that much of this album is directed towards their relationship (much in the same way that Third Eye Blind's "Out of the Vein" was directed at Charlize Theron, who Stephen Jenkins had broken up with).
Billy has said in interviews about Oceania
"If you listen to the lyrics, it was written around some serious relationship strife. When somebody breaks your heart, you can choose to accept, embrace, and forgive them, as opposed to condemn them. I got a few albums out of [sic] condemn! Now I’m working on compassion as a device."
While there are a few songs that are incredibly bleak (Violet Rays for example), there are also a lot of songs that are very cheerful and geared towards moving on and forgiveness (Pinwheels and Inkless for example)
--
If I listened to this album out of order, I would give it a 7/10. It's a solid effort and while there are a few "misses", there are also some amazing individual efforts (Schroeder is awesome on guitar, I've seen him live with the Pumpkins and he definitely holds his own) and there are some very inspiring lyrics.
Listening to the album in order, I think Oceania is a very respectable 8.5/10.
I don't know that it's entirely a concept album... but it definitely has a lot of elements of one and I fully believe that songs 4-8 (at the minimum) are very much a journey/concept.
I don't think that it tops the highs of albums like Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie... but I also don't think that the anything Billy or this Pumpkins lineup does needs to top those phenemonal albums in order to be considered a success. It's not Mellon Collie... it's something different, but different isn't always bad.
I'll sum this up. I think that Oceania succeeds because Billy has finally given up on trying to show up or replace the old Pumpkins.
Just like he's found acceptance in his loss in his relationships, he's found acceptance in his loss of the old group.
I think that Billy summed it up best:
"it is the first time where you actually hear me escape the old band. I'm not reacting against it or for it or in the shadow of it."
I don't always belive what Billy says, but in this instance... I think he's spot on. He's moved on and it shows.
End of the album. I'll give my thoughts on Wildflower and then on the album as a whole.
As far as Wildflower...
I think it's about acceptance, forgiveness, and moving on.
Wildflower in the wilderness outside take your chance with love and laughter
I'm big into song titles, especailly with the Pumpkins.
A wildflower is a flower that blooms, but was not intended to do so. It is a seed that was not planted, but from which a flower grew.
In some ways I think the entire album Oceania is a bit of a wildflower and here is where I will go into my recap of the entire album as a whole.
Billy began the Teagarden project in August of 2009 and Billy and the Pumpkins vision was to release songs individually.
In 2010 Billy started dating Jessica Origliasso from the Veronicas (who is from Queensland, Australlia... which is part of the Oceania region). They split in June of 2012 and Oceania was released in June.
I believe that much of this album is directed towards their relationship (much in the same way that Third Eye Blind's "Out of the Vein" was directed at Charlize Theron, who Stephen Jenkins had broken up with).
Billy has said in interviews about Oceania
"If you listen to the lyrics, it was written around some serious relationship strife. When somebody breaks your heart, you can choose to accept, embrace, and forgive them, as opposed to condemn them. I got a few albums out of [sic] condemn! Now I’m working on compassion as a device."
While there are a few songs that are incredibly bleak (Violet Rays for example), there are also a lot of songs that are very cheerful and geared towards moving on and forgiveness (Pinwheels and Inkless for example)
--
If I listened to this album out of order, I would give it a 7/10. It's a solid effort and while there are a few "misses", there are also some amazing individual efforts (Schroeder is awesome on guitar, I've seen him live with the Pumpkins and he definitely holds his own) and there are some very inspiring lyrics.
Listening to the album in order, I think Oceania is a very respectable 8.5/10.
I don't know that it's entirely a concept album... but it definitely has a lot of elements of one and I fully believe that songs 4-8 (at the minimum) are very much a journey/concept.
I don't think that it tops the highs of albums like Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie... but I also don't think that the anything Billy or this Pumpkins lineup does needs to top those phenemonal albums in order to be considered a success. It's not Mellon Collie... it's something different, but different isn't always bad.
I'll sum this up. I think that Oceania succeeds because Billy has finally given up on trying to show up or replace the old Pumpkins.
Just like he's found acceptance in his loss in his relationships, he's found acceptance in his loss of the old group.
I think that Billy summed it up best:
"it is the first time where you actually hear me escape the old band. I'm not reacting against it or for it or in the shadow of it."
I don't always belive what Billy says, but in this instance... I think he's spot on. He's moved on and it shows.