Zwan - Mary Star Of The Sea

Blah! ...with all the words in the English dictionary that is about all I can come up with. Even months before a record was in the works, people were anticipating this album. “The next super group”, people would say. With Billy Corgan directing the ship, Zwan has instant interest and an instant fan base of old Pumpkins fans, but does the ship sink or sail? A little of both, actually. It is not that this album is bad, because it isn’t. It is actually decent if you are looking for alternative-pop-hard-melancholy-happy-rock (I think I just created a genre), but decent doesn’t really cut it. First off, anyone who tells you Zwan doesn’t sound like the Smashing Pumpkins is smoking some bad, bad stuff. By virtue of Billy alone, they sound a lot like the Pumpkins. Same voice, same songwriting, just more upbeat. Of course that doesn’t give due credit to the new members in the Corgan clan, who do more than an ample job of completing the band. A lot of the songs show more depth than the Pumpkins, in terms of acoustic backing, guitar fills and the like. Stylistically, yes, Zwan is not the Pumpkins, but I bet if I put a Smashing Pumpkins label on this CD and gave it to a hundred people, not even a handful would question it was a new Pumpkins album. Radio friendly tunes like “Honestly”, “Lyric” and “Ride a Black Swan” fill up the bulk of the album, with slower and more epic songs taking a back seat to fun for the first time in Corgan history. The production is stellar. The song writing is good enough. The musicianship is there. So, what is missing? Who can say? If you have extra cash and just want a good listen, then go for it. The album as a whole is good, but there is better music out there to buy first. You may very well listen to this record with a bobbing head and a smile, but I just can’t honestly picture this album ever being on the top of your mind. Months down the line, when you are sitting in front of your album collection thinking, “What should I listen to?” I just can’t imagine the enthusiastic answer being “Zwan!” [www.zwan.com]