I also had copies of Oceania and Monuments. Oceania was actually not half bad. Solid 6.5/10. Monuments just had âBeing Beigeâ and âOne and All.â Itâs more of a 4. I never listened to the rest of it. I lost them at some point. No idea where they could have gone. Iâve moved house like a half dozen times since '14 so they probably got lost in the move.
Gish is an 8, Siamese Dream is a 9.5, Mellon Collie is a 9, Adore is an 8 (criminally underrated, check it out if you want to get into some of Billy Corganâs lesser known work). Machina is ok. About a 4 for me. âThe Everlasting Gazeâ is a real banger, but donât get your hopes up that the rest of the album keeps it up. âTry, Try, Tryâ and âThis Timeâ are good songs and the only other ones of note to me. The rest of it I can skip. Pisces Iscariot is an 8 for me. Itâs got their âLandslideâ cover and âStellaâ absolutely slaps, but the whole thing is good.
Iâve also got Machina II, but youâll never find a physical copy. I just have FLACs. You can download it for free (which I recommend). The band rushed making it as they were about to break up. As far as I know, once the songs were recorded and everyone went their separate ways, pressings were sent to various radio stations. Perhaps as a way to get the music out there. Perhaps for preservationâs sake. But some of them did create digital reproductions of the album and itâs available for free digital download in various formats. Machina and Machina II were supposed to mesh together as an overarching concept album, but the label wasnât going to allow another double album like Mellon Collie after the flop Adore was. Iâm actually okay with that because I think the low quality production of Machina II makes it a significantly better album. âSlow Dawn,â âVanity,â âSatur9,â âTry (Version 1),â âGlass,â "âCash Car Star,â âDross,â âReal Love,â âGo,â âLet Me Give The World To You,â and âWhite Spyderâ are all great songs. âInnosenseâ is also pretty good. In short, Machina II is filled with some great deep cuts that not many people have really heard about.
I havenât checked out any of Billyâs work past Monuments. Iâve heard Ogilala isnât bad. My sister really likes their new album Atum, but Iâm not too big on it.
Anyway, if youâve made it this far, go listen to Glynis. The song was written around the Gish/Siamese Dream era about a Chicago-area bassist Glynis Johnson who died in '92 of AIDS complications. It was written for the 1993 album No Alternative, which aimed to raise awareness of and benefit AIDS relief.
Also, check out Drown. Itâs just an awesome 8Âœ minute romp.
Came back to add: I have the Zwan album too.
I hear this one was pretty divisive. I liked it. âLyricâ is good. âEl Solâ is a fun one. Iâm not big on the first part of âJesus, I/Mary Star of the Seaâ so I imported it to Audacity and split the song into its two disctinct parts. âMary Star of the Seaâ features some some of Jimmyâs best drumming since Geek USA. I havenât spun this one up in years til now.