adore

Adore: The Smashing Pumpkins

Classification: Slacker Rock
Release: Adore, 1998

The purpose of this exercise is to get the juices going, to write when I don't feel like writing - when I have nothing worthwhile to write. As I was typing this introductory sentence a thought occurred to me: what a great plan. The juices flowed. Ideas came pouring in. Then I sat down at the typewriter ready to pounce on one of the myriad of topics that came to me. Just as I fired up the old boy all the ideas scampered off into the shadows. The juices dried up. It may be a winter wonderland outside, but my insides feel like the Sahara. 

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is my favorite album by The Smashing Pumpkins. I don't have that one on vinyl. I have Adore, ergo we shall begin the adoration. At one point I had the double disc CD but it was taken from me by my mother - she did not approve of the lyrics to "Zero". While I appreciate the theological stance as an adult, the twelve year old version of me that had his CD taken away found the addition of the forboden only enhanced the appeal of Infinite Sadness. It is a high water mark in Slacker rock history. That said, Ava Adore is one of their finest tunes. You can disagree - you'd just be wrong.

When Infinite Sadness was taken away from me I had to turn to the streets. Given my street address was firmly planted in the middle of solidly middle class with aspirations neighborhood the streets weren't all that helpful. Lucky for me, the Presbyterian School I attended had a dealer. He was an entrepreneur, that kid. Knew his market. Knew his clientele. Having more theologically lenient parents his music collection was left unmolested. His hustle proved John Calvin was right about at least one thing: Total Depravity. He bought all the questionable CDs and used his boombox to record them onto cassette tapes. The cassette tapes were sold for $2 without a case and $5 with a case that included a jacket from a random Contemporary Christian Artist. He also sold pogs he made with his pog-maker that featured scantily clad women. The guy is either a millionaire or in prison by now. He was predestined, what good is it to mope over someone's fate when it is sealed from birth? That sounds a bit Pagan - a little Norse, a little Greek. Mr. Calvin, methinks you doth have a bit of explaining to doth.

It's been quite a while since I put this record on. I'm really getting into it. "Tear" is really dropping me back into that late 90's postgrunge vibe. I was fifteen when I bought this album. It's one of the records that I've had the longest. I bought it at some headshop in Marion, IN - I cannot remember the name of that shop for the life of me! My mom drove me there; she was still suspicious, but had mellowed in the gap between Infinite Sadness & Adore. She was much more concerned with the Satanic looking Blue Oyster Cult album that I purchased alongside this Smashing Pumpkins record. My Dad vouched for that one, calming my mother's alarm at the Druidlike figures who graced the cover. 

I think the light industrial feel to this album is something that I either took for granted at the time or had long forgotten. "Apples+Oranjes" wouldn't have been out of place in a late 80's Depeche Mode. After pausing to listen more closely I Googled the song to make sure that it wasn't a Depeche Mode song originally. Boy! That would have been embarrassing if it had been. Of course, you would have never known of my embarrassment. If a tree slips and falls in the woods when no one is around does it feel embarrassment? Adore is a solid album, but it still isn't Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, which is currently trending at about $140 at the moment. Adore is the best we're going to get for quite some time.