Smashin Pumpkins - Zeitgeist

2 stars (or option 2)... I never did like the smashing pumpkins much, and only liked a few acoustic songs. So this all heavy/metaly stuff isn't my type.

I haven't checked it out yet, but all reviews I've read are really negative, so hearing it is not a high priority right now. 

Yeppers. I got it at Best Buy a few days ago with a gift card, so I wouldn't feel totally ripped off if it was awful. I'm beginning to like most of it now. Here's my little review for Rate Your Music:

Not horrible. At worst, some songs can be completely lifeless and a waste of time. Even on past Pumpkins albums like MACHINA that don't compare to their best, the  Pumpkins made interesting, varied music, even if the quality of the music was not brilliant. Here, the Pumpkins just meander for awhile in mid-tempo, bland rock songs until finding their niche halfway through the album; Zeitgeist is a rare album that gets better as it progresses. The best moments are oddly non-Pumpkins-esque: the 80s goth/glam-reminiscent "Starz," "Neverlost," and "Pomp and Circumstances." The worst, oddly again, are the radio singles "Tarantula" and "Doomsday Clock,"--even though "Doomsday" is not all that bad-- and "7 Shades of Black" (more like "7 Shades of Bland!" Haha, see what I did there....! Ahhh. *sigh*) The only other big disappointment is the "epic" "United States." I listen to Klaus Schulze albums, and even I have trouble sitting through 10 minutes of Billy making scratchy sounds with his guitar. Sonically, Zeitgeist captures the drumming and the crunch of the guitars perfectly, but it would have benefited if the mix let the backing keyboards in a few of the songs shine a bit brighter. It can also be a bit irritating when the only harmonies to Billy's croon are overdubs of Billy's croon.

The verdict: I have trouble calling this stuff Pumpkins material. Even if Billy was the main/only creative force for the band, I still think it's more of a Billy solo album with Jimmy drumming. Whether Jame Iha actually contributed creatively to the Pumpkins is up in the air, but there's no question the band wrote better songs while he was around. While not on any level near Mellon Collie, Zeitgeist is still decent. Come in with low expectations, and leave feeling modestly rewarded.

I'm thinking about option #3. I rated it 3/5 on RateYourMusic.