A Song For A Son
Astral Planes
Widow Wake My Mind
A Stitch In Time
Billy Corgan - vocals, guitar, keyboards, electric sitar
Mike Byrne - drums
Mark Tulin - bass
Kerry Brown - congas on 'Astral Planes'
Ysanne Spevack - violin, viola
Linda Strawberry - backing vocals
Produced by Billy Corgan, Kerry Brown and Bjorn Thorsrud
Billy Corgan's reconstituted Smashing Pumpkins entered the new decade with a novel idea. 44 songs, all released for free to download online, with a physical E.P. to be released after 4 songs have been made available. 'Songs For A Sailor' is the first E.P. to be released.
Entirely recorded by Billy Corgan, Mike Byrne (who replaces original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin), and temporary stand-in Mark Tulin (standing in for Ginger Reyes, who left the band to concentrate on her new family, and Nicole Fiorentino who had yet to be brought into the band), the songs on this record are definite growers. I wasn't a huge fan of any of them until repeated listens opened up their beauty to me. A perfect example of this is 'A Song For A Son', which on the face of it is just a simple piano melody that breaks down into some fairly impressive guitar theatrics.
The thing about the way these songs are being released is that Billy doesn't have to focus on any particular style to make the songs fit together, and it shows. There are shades of folk, and pop here, and other than the aforementioned guitar, the rock that the Pumpkins are known for is hardly anywhere to be seen.
There is a little bit of fumbling on here that shows that he's still getting used to this freedom, but overall this is a very strong set of songs.
Listen to/download these and all other 'Teargarden By Kaleidyscope' songs that have been released, here: http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/pages/home
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