New Records this Week: Meh

Most weeks there is usually something new I wind up buying. Not this week! The big releases that were on my radar were the Fiona Apple and Smashing Pumpkins records.

I was ready to drink the kool-aid and get the Fiona Apple record because that's the sort of thing a music geek does, right? And she usually works with producer Jon Brion who is one of my favorite artists (and likely somebody you never heard of). Well, not this time in either case. I listened to clips and found myself saying "no" to the question of whether I would listen to it again. This is against the tide, I reckon, reading all the reviews saying how great it is. Whatever.

Same thing with The Smashing Pumpkins. I have never been the biggest SP fan but I did go to college in the 90s so I have Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie... and for some strange reason MACHINA. The requisite tracks from the first two records show up on the mega-90s-mix (currently > 1200 tracks [and yes there are Fiona Apple tracks in the mix]) on my iTouch, but I don't listen to those records anymore. I am listening to samples of the new record right now and I remain unimpressed. Perhaps I lose some street cred but meh.  If I want an old band crunch-ifying things and being noisy I'll go with the new record from The Cult. Yeah, now we are talking!

I do respect both Fiona Apple and Billy Corgan. Especially Billy Corgan because he is from Chicago and likes Rush. They make records they want to make and that is awesome. They just don't do it for me and there isn't anything wrong with that. I hope they sell a shitload.