Mary Star of the Sea is the only studio album by American alternative rock band Zwan, released on January 28, 2003 on Reprise (February 10 in the UK). Produced by frontman Billy Corgan and Bjorn Thorsrud, the album was supported by the singles "Honestly" and "Lyric".
The album debuted at number 3 in the US, selling 90,000 copies in its first week, and over 250,000 copies by the time of the band's break-up later that year. Described by Corgan as "the great lost Pumpkins record", the album's music was spearheaded by Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Seven months after the album's release Corgan announced the band's dissolution, which he attributed to conflicts between the band's members.
Critical reception
Mary Star of the Sea received mostly positive reviews. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly named it the sixth best album of 2003. The Alternative Press called the album a "return to form" for Corgan.
"There's none of the schizophrenia that afflicted The Smashing Pumpkins' half-shouty, half-pop final outing Machina/The Machines of God," enthused Q's Garethy Grundy, "just a lighter, prettier, more concise sound… Those who saw out the wilderness years that followed 1998's forlorn, career-killing Adore will consider Zwan their reward. It's as sweet-natured, if not quite as wistful, as that undervalued effort, and the influence of [Corgan's] new favourite band, New Order, is even more pronounced."
The album debuted at number 3 in the US, selling 90,000 copies in its first week. But it quickly descended the charts, and fell short of the sales of any Smashing Pumpkins album.
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Singles
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ Chart performance of singles from Mary Star of the Sea
!rowspan="2"| Title
!rowspan="2"| Year
!colspan="6"| Chart positions
|-
!style="width:6em;font-size:90%"| US Modern Rock<br />
!style="width:6em;font-size:90%"| US Mainstream Rock<br />
!style="width:6em;font-size:90%"| AUS<br />
!style="width:6em;font-size:90%"| UK<br />
|-
! scope="row"| "Honestly"
| 2002
|style="text-align:center"| 7
|style="text-align:center"| 21
|style="text-align:center"| 26
|style="text-align:center"| 86
|style="text-align:center"| 28
|-
! scope="row"| "Lyric"
| 2003
|style="text-align:center"| —
|style="text-align:center"| —
|style="text-align:center"| —
|style="text-align:center"| —
|style="text-align:center"| 44
|}