FLASHBACK
INT. FAMILY HOME – MORNING (1996)
A kid watches TV, sitting on the carpet. It’s Saturday morning. In the background, “Del 40 al 1” plays on Canal Plus.
FERNANDISCO (V.O.)
(over the TV, euphoric)
And at number 35… full throttle with The Smashing Pumpkins!
The first bars of “Tonight, Tonight” begin. The shot closes in on the kid’s eyes, wide open. Those drum rolls, those orchestral arrangements, that video in the purest Méliès style. More than a song, it’s a Marian apparition.
EXT. SCHOOL BUS – DAYS LATER – MORNING
The radio plays again. It’s “La Hora Lucky” or “Lucky 10.” A 10-minute program sponsored by Lucky Strike that associated American cities with artists.
AMERICAN NARRATOR (V.O.)
(a Spaniard comically imitating a Yankee accent)
Welcome to Chicago, baby… Today we’re spinning the local Smashing Pumpkins.
The string section and drum rolls of “Tonight, Tonight” break in again. The kid shoots up in his seat.
KID
(to himself, amazed)
This is no coincidence. This song is haunting me. It’s magical.
INT. VIRGIN MEGASTORE – AFTERNOON (1996)
Infinite shelves of CDs and cassettes. The kid and his friend Dani stand in front of a listening post. They wear giant padded headphones from the era. The selected album is the first LP of the double Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
The two take turns with the headphones, their eyes alight with the excitement of discovering something new, devouring the seminal album. It’s a sacred ritual they repeat every week because they don’t have money to buy it.
INT. DANI’S ROOM – AFTERNOON (1996)
A boombox sits on the table. The fold-out booklet of the original Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness cassette spreads out like an accordion.
The Kid and Dani are glued to the speaker. Not a muscle moves as they rewind the tape, pore over the lyrics line by line, and marvel at the album’s artwork.
INT. LIVING ROOM – WEEKS LATER – DAY
Your BROTHER enters through the door with a smug smile. In his hand, he brandishes something shining under the lamp: the crown jewel, the original double CD of Mellon Collie. There’s no turning back now; it has definitively become your go-to album.
One fine day in 1995, a still-haired Billy Corgan decided that after assaulting the mainstream with his masterpiece and second album, Siamese Dream, he wasn’t satisfied; he needed his next work to be a conceptual double album of 28 songs and two hours in length, dealing with such manageable themes as the cycle of life, death, sadness, and youth. Call him modest. Now, coinciding with the album’s 30th anniversary, he will present an orchestral and operatic show based on his megalomaniacal work worldwide, which we review by ranking its songs from least to most favorite.
The Songs of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, Ranked from Worst to Best:
28. Beautiful: A sophisticated and pretty synth-pop piece that feels a bit out of place among so many behemoths.
27. Lily (My One and Only): From the club of baroque pop songs that help round out the album’s eclectic and excessive experience, but which, on their own, don’t quite kill it.
26. Take Me Down: James Iha takes the lead vocal on the closing track of the first disc. Acoustic and simple, without showing off.
25. We Only Come Out at Night: We return to parlor arrangements with a charming but somewhat drawn-out cabaret vaudeville.
24. Tales of a Scorched Earth: Corgan unleashes with a filtered voice in a torrent of noise rock that he’ll execute better on another track on the album.
23.Cupid de Locke: The best of the baroque miniatures, with a use of harp and percussion that works wonderfully in its psychedelic quest.
22. Farewell and Goodnight: The album’s closer is a beautiful lullaby with all band members singing chorally around a campfire. A farewell embrace.
21. By Starlight: Dream Pop, Slowcore, and Shoegaze join hands in one of the album’s great underrated tracks.
20. Where Boys Fear to Tread: The second disc begins menacing, raw, and industrial, showing us that this B-side will be much darker and harder to digest.
19. In the Arms of Sleep: Calm through subtle folk and indie-pop arrangements in one of the album’s best acoustic pieces.
18. Love: A psychedelic rock rarity that plays with textures and electronic production in a continuous 4-minute hum that tends to be divisive.
17. Stumbleine: The album’s most intimate piece creates atmosphere through almost Lo-fi folk. Corgan and his guitar, what more could you need?
16. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: It’s an intro, but what an intro. A neo-classical piano piece that gradually enriches with subtle string arrangements, creating the fable-like aura that will hover over the album.
15. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans: Could be an album summary. It contains all of Mellon Collie in a progressive space rock suite format that is one of the creative peaks of the collection.
14. Muzzle: It grabs you by the lapels from the start with a vibrant Corgan, and Jimmy Chamberlin’s drum roll plunges you headfirst into its most power pop and vitalistic vein.
13. X.Y.U.: The final boss of this album is this 7-minute nightmare where the heaviest grunge borders on Sabbath-style sludge riffs in an amalgam of distortions, onomatopoeias, screams, and terrifying lyrics.
12. Fuck You (An Ode to No One): Full-throttle Hard Rock. Thrilling, full of killer riffs, breaks and with Chamberlin knocking it out of the park in a heart-stopping climax.
11. Here Is No Why: Once again, the most power pop side of alternative rock takes over a song built on a very strange riff with a soaring finish where Corgan pulls a solo out of his sleeve that elevates it from excellent to outstanding.
10. Thru the Eyes of Ruby: Same case as “Porcelina…” but more to the point. A progressive rock epic where all the album’s Pumpkins are in the same blender.
9. Thirty-Three: A masterful folk pop single that grows and grows through a production that doesn’t need to overload the atmosphere to achieve some of its most memorable melodies.
8. Galapogos: Like its predecessor on the list, it seems to float in ether. The triumph of simplicity lies in this greatly underrated acoustic track. Dream pop that moves with a perfect balance between austerity and baroque grandeur.
7. To Forgive: A personal favorite that has become my top pick from its less electric side. Slowcore that aches for 4 minutes with a lump in your throat.
6. Jellybelly: If you had to define alternative rock in one song, this isn’t a bad candidate. A torrent of overwhelming guitars, drums that deliver triumphs throughout the song, and vocal melodies reminiscent of Siamese Dream form a grunge powerhouse for the ages.
5. Zero: A crushing and iconic riff, a generational lyric, a solo that sounds like an angry beehive, and the most defiant, prototypically Generation X attitude imaginable. The 90s right in your damn face.
4. Bullet with Butterfly Wings: The first time you hear The world is a vampire…, a sense of unease washes over you, only growing through a verse that is pure grunge authority before exploding into a chorus for the history books of alternative music.
3. Bodies: The great underrated track from its electric side is this cyclone where guitars and Chamberlin’s drums create an orgy bordering on alternative metal while Corgan screams his lungs out, and before you know it, the next second he’s whispering Love is suicide…
2. 1979: If “Jellybelly” can define a genre, “1979” could define the entire decade. A perfect blend of synth pop and alternative rock that captures all the longing and nostalgia for years and experiences the listener hasn’t even touched, but boy, does it succeed. It’s an absolutely perfect pop song.
1. Tonight, Tonight: Gold medal for the song that started it all. From the very first second, the bond between ear and heart solidifies and stays there forever. Symphonic rock where every arrangement adds, every lyrical line makes you stand up and applaud, and above all, makes you believe that The impossible is possible tonight.