Siamese Dream is the second studio album by the American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, released on July 19, 1993 in the UK catapulting the Smashing Pumpkins to mainstream success and cementing them as a significant group in alternative music.
Four singles were released in support of Siamese Dream: "Cherub Rock", "Today", "Disarm", and "Rocket", and a fifth single, "Mayonaise", was released in 2023 for the album's 30th anniversary. The album received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike, with its diverse musical influences and lyrical material considered unique compared to other releases during the alternative rock and grunge movements of its time. The album has since been considered "one of the finest alternative rock albums",
Background
The band's debut album, Gish, was released on Caroline Records in 1991 to unexpected success and acclaim. After the release of Nirvana's Nevermind later that year, the Smashing Pumpkins were hyped as "the next Nirvana". The band was signed to Caroline Records parent Virgin Records and began recording a follow-up album. Frontman Billy Corgan felt "this great pressure to make the next album to set the world on fire". The immense pressure to succeed intensified an already problematic situation: drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was addicted to heroin, guitarist James Iha and bassist D'arcy Wretzky had recently ended their romantic relationship, and Corgan, aside from battles with weight gain and suicidal depression, After he suffered a nervous breakdown, Corgan began visiting a therapist. Consequently, his lyrics became more explicit about his troubled past and his insecurities. and to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. Butch Vig reprised his role as producer after working on their debut album Gish. Butch Vig stated "Billy [Corgan] and I raised the bar really high. We wanted to make a very ambitious sounding record. It was all done on analogue tape so it was time consuming. We were working 12 hours a day, six times a week for about three months, and for the last two months we worked seven days a week, 14 or 15 hours a day because we were behind schedule."
"Today" was one of the first songs written by Corgan for Siamese Dream.
While Chamberlin performed all drum parts on the album, he would disappear for days on drug benders that caused everyone to fear for his life. After one incident where the drummer had disappeared for two or three days, Corgan "put the hammer down", according to Vig, and had Chamberlin perform the drum part for "Cherub Rock" until his hands bled.
Meanwhile, Corgan was also going through his own problems. He would admit in 2011 that throughout the recording process he had been planning his own suicide. Stating that he had gotten rid of most of his things and was "fantasizing about my own death, I started thinking what my funeral would be like and what music would be played."
Virgin began to grow impatient with the album's recording as it went over budget and became behind schedule. The band, however, would not let the label cut corners if it meant compromising the sound. Moulder booked two weeks in a studio to mix the album; the mix ended up taking 36 days to complete. Eventually, the album was finished after four months and $250,000 over budget. For the album, the guitars were layered multiple times. Corgan has stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts. Vig stated that as many as 100 guitar parts were compressed into a single song. indie rock, and hard rock album. According to Rolling Stone, the album was "closer to progressive rock than to punk or grunge."
The subjects of Corgan's lyrics on Siamese Dream varied. Corgan noted that most of his lyrics for the album were about his girlfriend and future ex-wife Chris Fabian, with whom he had briefly broken up at the time he wrote the songs. and "Today" is about a day that he was experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts. "Spaceboy" was written as a tribute to his half-brother, Jesse.
Artwork and packaging
The cover art for Siamese Dream features two young girls embracing while wearing dresses and fairy wings. Despite the album name leading to speculation that the girls were conjoined twins, or at least related, they were in fact California-based child models Ali Laenger and Lysandra Roberts, who had not met before. This information was not shared at the time, however, and their identities were a mystery in the following years. Laenger later described the photo shoot as "the ultimate childhood dream day" and said she and Roberts spent the shoot eating Lemonheads and rocket popsicles. The album booklet, composed of old photographs of both strangers and Corgan's family members with lyrics handwritten on top, was assembled by Corgan and his wife the day after their wedding.
Shortly after the Pumpkins reformed in 2007, Corgan posted a message to the band's blog saying that they were "[l]ooking for girls from Siamese Dream album cover... As you all know, they were quite young when the photo was taken. They are not conjoined anymore, as far as we know." The band's intentions for the search were never made clear. In February 2011, Corgan announced via Twitter that not only had one of the girls been found, she was the current bassist for the Pumpkins, Nicole Fiorentino. According to Corgan, "Just found out the weirdest news: our bass player Nicole just admitted she is one of the girls on the cover of Siamese Dream." However, according to the assistant photographer for Siamese Dream, the cover photo was probably shot specifically for the album. Given Fiorentino's age at the time of the album, this would make her too old to be on the cover of the album. Laenger and Roberts were reunited in 2018 for a video announcing the Smashing Pumpkins' Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour.
Release and reception
Contemporary reviews
Siamese Dream was released in the United States on July 27, 1993, and debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 the following week. The album was almost universally lauded by music critics. Selects Andrew Perry praised it as "the most grand-scale, expansively-passionate blasts of music you'll hear this year" and remarked that it would be "hard for anyone to top this one". Lorraine Ali of Rolling Stone called the album "a strong, multidimensional extension of Gish that confirms that Smashing Pumpkins are neither sellouts nor one-offs." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice cited "Geek U.S.A." and "Today" as highlights while noting the record's strength is "the sonics"; he later rated the album with a three-star honorable mention. Siamese Dream earned the Smashing Pumpkins their first Grammy Award nominations. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance, and the group was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards.
Retrospective reappraisal
Siamese Dream continues to receive critical praise and has been frequently included in lists of the best albums of the 1990s—the Alternative Press ranked it fourth, Pitchfork ranked it 18th, and Spin ranked it 23rd. In a retrospective review of the album, Greg Prato of AllMusic called Siamese Dream "one of the finest alt-rock albums of all time" and remarked that it "stands alongside Nevermind and Superunknown as one of the decade's finest (and most influential) rock albums." The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
- Evren Göknar – mastering (2011 remaster bonus CD)
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Weekly chart performance for Siamese Dream
! scope="col"| Chart (1993–2002)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
!scope="row"
|-
!scope="row"|Canadian Albums (RPM)
|style="text-align: center; "|3
|-
!scope="row"
|-
!scope="row"|European Albums (European Top 100 Albums)
|style="text-align: center; "|35
|-
!scope="row"
|-
!scope="row"|Greek Albums (Pop & Rock)
|style="text-align: center; "|15
|-
!scope="row"|Greek Indie Albums (Pop & Rock)
| 28
|-
!scope="row"
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 1993 year-end chart performance for Siamese Dream
! Chart (1993)
! Position
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 40
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 1994 year-end chart performance for Siamese Dream
! Chart (1994)
! Position
|-
!scope="row"|Australian Albums (ARIA)
|47
|-
!scope="row"|Canadian Albums (RPM)
|7
|-
!scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
|5
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard 200
|15
|}
Certifications
References
External links
- Siamese Dream at AllMusic
- Siamese Dream at Discogs
- Siamese Dream at Cool Album of the Day