reviews / 2017

BILLY CORGAN - Ogilala

Name: BILLY CORGAN – Ogilala
Item: Ogilala
Rating: 4
Author: Michele Saran

2017 (Martha's music)

songwriter

by Michele Saran

The undisputed leader of the resurrected Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan (here rediscovering himself under his full name, William Patrick) adds yet another piece to his not exactly thrilling solo output – let's not forget the ill-fated supergroup Zwan – with his second solo effort, "Ogilala".

From start to finish, it's dominated by wilted, fleeting acoustic ballads loaded with assorted midlife regrets. His reedy voice, at times unintentionally comic in falsetto or heavily modulated with vibrato, sits awkwardly against the backdrop of the most classic repeated piano chords in the style of John Lennon's “Imagine” (“Zowie”, “Mandarynne”, “Aeronaut”), or even struggles to hit the right pitch on simple refrains that echo Coldplay (“The Long Goodbye”, “Half-Life Of An Autodidact”).

Some credit him with greater sincerity (partly true of “Amarinthe”) compared to its predecessor “The Future Embrace” (2005), but all one really sees is a pathetic recycling of himself as an improbable Elton John for those nostalgic for the roaring 90s alternative years. “Take Me As I Am…” he sings on “The Spaniards”. It's no easy task: Rick Rubin's production (a mawkish wash of keyboards and strings) does everything it can to turn him into something he's never been. Or is this very senility actually his true self? There's a cameo from the Pumpkins' longtime guitarist, James Iha (practically the whole track is his on the least bad song here, “Processional”).

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20/11/2017

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Michele Saran, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition