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Machina/The Machines of God
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Machina/The Machines of God | |||||
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| Studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins | |||||
| Released | February 29, 2000 | ||||
| Recorded | November 1998 – October 1999 at Sadlands, Pumpkinland, Chicago Recording Company | ||||
| Genre | Alternative rock | ||||
| Length | 73:13 | ||||
| Label | Virgin Records | ||||
| Producer | Billy Corgan and Flood | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
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| The Smashing Pumpkins chronology | |||||
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| Singles from Machina/The Machines of God | |||||
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Machina/The Machines of God is The Smashing Pumpkins' fifth studio album, released on February 29, 2000. It is a concept album, albeit very loosely.
Machina was the band's final official LP release prior to their first breakup in 2000. A sequel album—Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music—was released independently via the internet.
As with Adore, Machina represented a drastic image and sound change for the band. Nonetheless, Machina, like its predecessor, failed to reconnect the Pumpkins with chart-topping success. However, the band's tours in support of Machina, entitled Resume the Pose and The Sacred + Profane, were far more successful than the Adore tour, as fans responded to the return of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and setlists that included far more of the Pumpkins' back catalog.
Contents |
In April 1999, only months after ending the promotion of Adore, the Pumpkins embarked on an eight date tour of small clubs across the United States and Canada. This tour marked several changes - the return of Jimmy Chamberlin, a new logo (no logos were used on Adore), and the band's return to playing material from throughout their career, not to mention a return to a less experimental rock arrangement.
Shortly after the brief Arising! tour, the band entered the studio to work on a new album as a four-piece. The recording of Machina was unusually secretive compared to the documentaries that were filmed for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Adore. Much like Mellon Collie, the songs were first tracked acoustically at Sadlands in late 1998 and completed at Pumpkinland and the Chicago Recording Company from November 1998 to October 1999 with Howard Willing, Bjorn Thorsrud and Flood. D'arcy Wretzky left the band towards the end of recording. The band has maintained that she performs on almost the entire album. The exception, however, is the song "Age of Innocence" which was recorded at the Village Recorder in November 1999 without D'arcy.
Fans were surprised when the Machina tracklist was released with only five tracks from The Arising! featuring (it was later discovered that "The Imploding Voice" was a reworking of "Virex"). Corgan also mentioned in an interview that all but three of the songs were re-written, and were added to a huge list of forty that had been written for the album. Corgan has asserted that Machina was always intended to be the band's final album - this being the reason for recruiting Jimmy Chamberlin back into the band. Corgan has also said it was meant to be a double album (with Machina II being the second disc) but that idea was not approved by Virgin Records as they didn't want to release a risky double album after the disappointing sales of Adore. After Machina proved even less successful than Adore, the band released Machina II on their own.
Many of the songs on the album refer to love and relationships (both romantic and otherwise) ending, most of them obvious references to the band themselves. After the demure Adore, Machina represented a return to the distorted guitar sound of prior albums, though synthesizers were still heavily used.
"Stand Inside Your Love" was released on January 21, 2000 as a commercially available single. "The Everlasting Gaze", however, was released at the last minute as the album's first radio single in December 1999. Director Jonas Åkerlund shot videos for "The Everlasting Gaze" and album's last single "Try, Try, Try" which was released on September 11, 2000. The video for the latter single brought some controversy for its explicit violence and drug use. It was widely rumoured that "I of the Mourning" would be released as a commercial single, which could be hinted by band's performance of the song on The Late Show with David Letterman, but it was released only as a promotional single.
Although Machina is much more story-based than previous releases, which have sometimes hinted at concepts, it is not a story album in the vein of Tommy or The Wall, but is much more open to interpretation. Corgan stated in VH-1 Storytellers that many of the songs are written from the perspective of the band as the press and public viewed them, rather than Corgan himself. In this vein, songs such as "Heavy Metal Machine" are seen as parodies and homage to their influences and public perception. Nonetheless, it is a concept album, with its story expanded upon greatly in other media - online notes, written segments in both Machina album liner notes, and a "Glass and the Machines of God" animated series.
In June of 2001, a few members of the Smashing Pumpkins Message Board were sent mysterious video clips that pointed to a website called Black Wings Over the World. Thus began the "June Mystery". The first website held clues to find two other websites, also hiding the username/password for one site - The Paracell Corporation. Black Wings also hid another site's address, Smash The System. Over the next two months more clues were dropped on the message board and more sites were found and codes cracked. Finally, all this frenzy of mystery and excitement climaxed with the announcement that Glass and The Machines of God was being made as a web based animated series. This was an early example of an internet-based alternate reality game, a form of viral marketing. The series would be interactive, to a degree, and everyone would have the chance, via Sony's Screenblast, to create their own characters and remixes for the series.
The animated series has since been "put on the shelf" indefinitely. Various rumors attribute the end of the project as lack of interest from Corgan and/or fans, or that Screenblast lost funding when the last two installments of the Matrix trilogy began eating up their budgets.
Three episodes were leaked onto the internet in 2003. There has been debate over whether these were early "drafts" or final cuts. The first two episodes contain no credits, where the third episode shows credits at the beginning.
In the first episode, Zero hears the Voice in the Radio and contacts his old friend and manager, Ruby. Their conversation is intercepted and patched through to the head of the Paracell Corp, Mr. Valentine - who has had a history with Zero.
Episode two shows Zero's transformation into Glass while visiting Ruby and the subsequent negotiations to get The Machines of God their first gig.
In the third episode we see how Glass affects the audience with his message of revolution.
There was also debate about whether or not background characters were in fact the Ghost Children created by the fans. However, one character - Maya, the Paracell psychic - is known to be a character created by a fan.
The booklet artwork loosely tells the album's story through a series of plates featuring medieval-style paintings and text presented in a printing press font created by Vasily Kafanov. The artwork references the subjects of alchemy, chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. "I Of The Mourning" is the only release from the album that did not include cover art by Vasily Kafanov. The album was nominated for a 2001 Grammy for Best Recording Package.
Machina is generally considered to be among The Smashing Pumpkins' least successful releases. Entering the U.S. charts at #3, the album quickly slid down the charts, barely going gold. As of May 2005, U.S. sales stood at 782,000 units[citation needed]. This ranks it as the lowest-selling of the five official album releases. The album is frequently criticized by some for its length, concept, and "wall of sound" production, while others contend that Machina brought together the rock sensibilities of early-'90s albums with the atmospherics and lyrical maturity of 1998's Adore. Reviews were mixed -Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork Media heavily criticized the album's production style and mainstream rock sound,[1] while Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times called the album "an exceedingly impressive and hard-driving record."[2]
All tracks written by Billy Corgan.
- "The Everlasting Gaze" – 4:00
- "Raindrops + Sunshowers" – 4:39
- "Stand Inside Your Love" – 4:14
- "I of the Mourning" – 4:37
- "The Sacred and Profane" – 4:22
- "Try, Try, Try" – 5:09
- "Heavy Metal Machine" – 5:52
- "This Time" – 4:43
- "The Imploding Voice" – 4:24
- "Glass and the Ghost Children" – 9:56
- "Wound" – 3:58
- "The Crying Tree of Mercury" – 3:43
- "With Every Light" – 3:56
- "Blue Skies Bring Tears" – 5:45
- "Age of Innocence" – 3:55
Some releases—namely, European and Asian Hut Records versions, and all vinyl editions—have an added track, "Speed Kills" inserted between "The Crying Tree of Mercury" and "Age of Innocence". This version of "Speed Kills" is not the Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music version. On the vinyl editions, this song is the full version that appears on the "Stand Inside Your Love" single. On the imports, the song is edited to a cut nearly two minutes shorter than the original.
A Japan promo version has an extended version of "The Sacred and Profane" with two bars of electronic drum beat in the beginning of the song, and a slightly different mix of "Age of Innocence".
A number of songs were recorded in some form or another during the Machina sessions but did not make either Machina/The Machines of God or Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music.
- "Autumn" (instrumental, not to be confused with the 1994 demo "Autumn Nocturne")[3]
- "Drain"[3]
- "Here I Am"[3]
- "Laugh"[3]
- "Lover"[3]
- "Death Boogie"[4]
- "Winterlong" (later released on Judas O)
- "Soot and Stars" (later released on Judas O)
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Top Canadian Albums | 2 |
| 2000 | Australian Album Chart[5] | 2 |
| 2000 | The Billboard 200 | 3 |
| 2000 | Top Internet Albums | 3 |
| 2000 | New Zealand Album Chart[6] | 4 |
| 2000 | UK Albums | 7 |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "The Everlasting Gaze" | Modern Rock Tracks | 4 |
| 2000 | "The Everlasting Gaze" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 14 |
| 2000 | "Stand Inside Your Love" | Modern Rock Tracks | 2 |
| 2000 | "Stand Inside Your Love" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 11 |
| 2000 | "Stand Inside Your Love" | UK Singles Chart | 23 |
| 2000 | "Stand Inside Your Love" | Australian Singles Chart | 32 |
| 2000 | "Try, Try, Try" | UK Singles Chart | 73 |
- Billy Corgan – vocals, guitar, bass on "Age of Innocence", producer, art direction, mixing
- James Iha – guitar
- D'arcy – bass
- Jimmy Chamberlin – drums
- Mike Garson – piano on "Glass and the Ghost Children"
- Flood – producer, mixing
- Alan Moulder – mixing
- Bjorn Thorsrud – recording, mixing, digital editing, compilation, additional programming
- Mike Zainer – mixing assistant
- Bill Douglass – mixing assistant
- Jef Moll – mixing assistant
- Erin Piepergerdes – mixing assistant
- Andrew Nicholls – mixing assistant
- Howard C. Willing – recorder, mixing
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
- Tim "Gooch" Lougee – technical assistance
- Scott Schimpff – technical assistance
- Tommy Lipnick – technical assistance
- Yelena Yemchuk – art direction
- Greg Sylvester – art direction
- Thomas Wolfe – art direction
- Vasily Kafanov – paintings, etchings
- ^ DiCrescenzo, Brent (2000-02-01). MACHINA/The Machines of God (http). Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2007-04-16.
- ^ DeRogatis, Jim. "Smashing Pumpkins Reclaiming Rock Glory." Chicago Sun-Times: 29 February 2000.
- ^ a b c d e Studio Sessions: Late 1998. SPFC.org. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ Studio Sessions: November 1998 - October 1999. SPFC.org. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ Chartifacts - Week Commencing: 23 July 2007. ARIA.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
- ^ Chartbitz: Wednesday, July 18 2007. RIANZ.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-18.
- SPFC.org: Contains archived copies of the Machina stories
- Video: Billy Corgan discusses the story of Machina, Part I
- Video: Billy Corgan discusses the story of Machina, Part II