Review: Smashing Pumpkins ‘Aghori Mhori Mei’ – A Surprisingly Potent Return To Classic Form

The Smashing Pumpkins have released a new album, entitled Aghori Mhori Mei, and I can’t lie, I’m very pleasantly surprised by this album. The title of the album – which I still haven’t found a translation for… I’ve read it’s Latin and means “I’m ready to die,” but you can’t trust the internet – is indeed a little weird but the music is on the money. This marks the first album in quite a while that Billy Corgan’s collaborator Jeff Schroeder (keyboards/guitar) isn’t involved and it’s just down to 3/4 of the original, classic Smashing Pumpkins line up: Billy Corgan (guitar/bass/keyboards/vocal/songwriting/etc), James Iha (guitars) and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums). Sadly, still no D’Arcy back on bass like in the 90s. While Iha and Chamberlin have been back in the band since 2018’s Shiny And Oh So Bright Vol. 1, this is the first album where it feels like they’re in the band for more than just publicity photos. There is some ferocious guitar and drums on this album that takes me back to… well, the 90s.

The Smashing Pumpkins hailed out of Chicago instead of the ultra “hip” Seattle back in the 90s and I think that always left a bit of a chip on Billy Corgan’s shoulder. They weren’t treated with the same reverence the Grunge bands got. I was actually turned onto the Pumpkins by my buddy Doug who lived up in Chicago for a long time. He came to visit me for one of my birthdays and handed me the Siamese Dream CD as a gift. Oh, I was in. When Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness came out in 1995 and literally everyone I knew got on the bandwagon I just smiled and said, “Oh, the Smashing Pumpkins… I’ve been listening to them for years.” I had gone back and purchased Gish so at the time I felt like I was in on the ground floor of a great band.

I thought the Pumpkins could do no wrong in the 90s. I was one of the few people who loved Adore, a stylish left turn into electronica. I was also a big fan of Machina although I never knew until later there was a Machina II. I was busy meeting my wife and wooing her, I couldn’t keep up with “digital only” releases. Alas, at that point the Pumpkins broke up. I followed Billy Corgan, who I consider brilliant, and Jimmy Chamberlin into Zwan but that ended up being a short lived 1-album project. Corgan’s solo album TheFutureEmbrace in 2005 left me utterly cold as did the first Smashing Pumpkins’ reunion album, 2007’s Zeitgeist. At that point I think a lot of people let the Pumpkins slide into the “nostalgia” category – “Great band, but I only listen to the old stuff.” When I told the Rock Chick this week that the Pumpkins had a great new album out she replied, “The Pumpkins, they aren’t relevant any more.” Ouch…the woman does not mince words.

Actually, I disagree with her. This latest run by the Pumpkins has been up and down but I’d put 2012’s Oceania and 2014’s Monuments To An Elegy (that boasted Tommy Lee of Motley Crue fame on drums) on any list of their best work. The aforementioned Shiny And Oh So Bright was when Iha and Chamberlin rejoined the fold and in listening to that album as “prep” for this album, it’s damn good. It felt a little tentative in terms of Iha and Chamberlin’s contribution but it held together. Then, for perverse reasons only Billy Corgan knows, the Pumpkins went full in on synthesizers. It was like Billy said, “Hey, I’ve got my guitarist and drummer back, let’s use keyboards and click track.” I didn’t like 2020’s CYR and I didn’t even try the follow-up, the 30 song, 3 disc ATUM. In my defense, I listened to the first disc of that when it was released and promptly put on Gish. I did go back and try to work through it as additional prep for this post but it didn’t grab me. Perhaps a little editing might have helped that one. But if I’m being honest, I recently listened to 14 discs of live Pete Towshend and didn’t struggle like I did to get through those three ATUM discs…

I must confess that I had also started to move the Pumpkins into the nostalgia category. I thought they were a spent musical force. And then I heard Aghori Mhori Mei. As I said earlier, it finally feels like Iha and Chamberlin are fully back in the band. First and foremost, they limited themselves to 10 songs (12 on the deluxe version). Editing helps, which is something I learned watching Top Chef…all art forms have similarities. They wanted to make an album in the vein of Siamese/Mellon Collie with more guitar and drums and Corgan said, this album “will make the old school fans happy, for once.” Touche Billy… He also said, “”you go back to the old school but with a new version of yourself,” which is hard to argue with. We get a rocking Smashing Pumpkins album but with the fresh attitude of who they are “now.” We can’t all play with the same attitude we did when we were in our 20s.

This may be the best Smashing Pumpkins album since Machina. They’ve come to rock. In some of the heavier material – call me crazy – but I hear a Sabbath-esque heavy riffing with the classic Black Sabbath time signature changes within a song. Yet, with all the heaviness in some of those harder rocking songs the Pumpkins manage to stay so melodic. Lyrically, I’m not going to lie to you, like Anthony Kiedis in the RHCP’s, I have no idea what he’s talking about. I get a certain emotional vibe from each song and connect with the choruses, but that doesn’t mean I can clarify the many, many biblical references in these lyrics. “Babylon, Babylon…”

The album opener, “Edin,” starts (thankfully) with ominous guitar and then a monster riff and drums hit and oh yes, I’m on my feet!! This is a great opener and feels like a statement of purpose, it’s epic rock n roll from the Pumpkins again. It’s followed up by “Pentagrams” which might be my favorite track on the album. Billy teams a plaintive vocal with the big riffs on this one. It starts with an acoustic guitar and then takes off. “Love never dies…” I love Jimmy’s drums on that song. “Sighommi” continues the hard rock vein of the album. It’s melodic and yet I would describing it as grinding metal guitar. There’s been no single from the album but “Sighommi” was getting some airplay.

“War Dreams Of Itself” may be the hardest rocking moment here. Billy sings “Babylon, Babylon” over smashing/crashing drums and fast/heavy guitars. The track reads like a harbinger of an Apocalyptic future. “Six-Six-Cicada” can’t be a good thing? It seems to hint at a divided country at war with itself. It’s a window shaker. “999” vacillates between vocals/keyboards and big riffs. “Sicarus” brings a heavy, hard, dark vibe with it but I like what it’s preaching.

There are a few mellower, mid-tempo moments. “Pentecost” is a nice change of pace near the early part of the record. It’s, dare I say, a pretty song. This feels like a love song with the lyric, “I’ve been saying goodbye forever, If you can recall when you’d fix and hold my gaze, And our lies were hard yet clever, And this life was sweet and not pain.” Jeez, I think I’ve had this relationship. “Pentecost” is perhaps the emotional highlight here. “Who Goes There” is another ballad that just hit me. It’s got almost pop hooks and a wonderful riff with a light touch. It’s just a lovely song. “Goeth The Fall” has echos of “1979.” “Murnau,” the closing track is drenched in strings. When Billy repeatedly sings, “As the river rolls,” I can’t help but think of Hermann Hesse’ Siddhartha. There’s a spiritual rebirth lurking in here somewhere. “Lord help me from my soul…” It’s a stunning end to a stunning album.

Just like the old Thomas Wolfe saying, “You can never go home again,” it’s hard for any artist to return to their “old school” way of writing/recording songs because as life goes on, the artist changes. Well, unless you’re AC/DC… those guys have been doing the same thing for 50 years and it’s fantastic. But the Pumpkins get as close to their classic sound on this record as they’re probably going to. If you’re not into this album, you’re probably just not that into them any more. Which is a shame because this is some really great rock n roll, that deserves to be on everyone’s turntable. It certainly proved to me, never count a great band out…

Turn this one up loud. Cheers!