My Amazon Reviews: Tinted Windows "Tinted Windows"

Wayne Hanson's Smashing Trick 
3 Out Of 5 Stars

A most unlikely supergroup, Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger asked pal pop singer Taylor Hanson (who'da thunk?) to team with him and James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins and then hauled in Cheap Trick drummer Bun E Carlos to pound the skins. So you have a multi-generational and multi-stylistic team who cranked out a one shot (so far) album under the moniker "Tinted Windows." Not surprisingly, with Hanson's and Schlesinger's affinity for power-pop and Carlos used to backing the glammy rock of Cheap Trick, the album is a power-popper's dream.

What is so funny about this is just how teen-pop this sounds. Rack up Jonas Brothers' "B-B-Good To Me" with "Kind Of a Girl" and you'll be hard pressed to tell which cut is the Disney act. James Iha is all but a reformed jangle popper this time around, and the whammy he puts into "Messing With My Head" or "Nothing To Me" is going to make you wonder why he didn't ditch Billy Corgan years ago. It's also easy to tell Carlos is having a ball when he digs into "Can't Get a Read on You."

"Tinted Windows" is by no means a brilliant album, at best it will make Dwight Twilley, 20/20 or fans of The Knack get nostalgic for their skinny ties. Or fans of any of TW's respective members (and frankly, there were a couple moments where I found myself wondering what FoW's Chris Collingwood would have done with a few of these. However, for straight-up four-piece power-pop rock with no synths, the Tinted Windows' debut makes me hope for maybe another go-round.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Smashing Pumpkins "Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness"

Despite All My Rage  
 3 Out of 5 Stars

Every generation needs a Magnum Opus, and Smashing Pumpkins delivered the 90's equivalent with their sprawling "Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness." Billy Corgan is in full array here, from the squalling guitar and nasally yelp of his vocals, to his unabashed desire to be an ego-crazed rock star, to his undeniable gift as a writer, this double Cd delivered in excess.

Problem is, excess is a big part of "Mellon Collie." Corgan's ego was jammed in high-gear by this time, and his ability to self edit was completely destroyed. So while you get such brilliant songs as "1979," "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and "Zero," you're also left to mull over why anyone thought "Ode To No One" or Galapagos" should have made the cut. And there's also no way to deny that fact that the lesser songs here begin to blend into each other despite Corgan's ambitious wedding of classic rock/heavy metal to 90's grunge style, added to the fact that Corgan's voice becomes sufficiently grating over the album's two-plus hour running time. Essentially, what sounded wild and progressive in 1995 has lost much of its luster 15 years later.

The hits (and we need to make special note of the ballad "Tonight Tonight" here) prove something that may come as a surprise to the band's devotees; with all of Corgan's ambitious high-falutin' concepts (as this album is presented as) and in spite of his tottering hubris (just beginning to hinder him here but incapacitating him since), Smashing Pumpkins were at their best when they were a singles band. Really, you can by the Greatest Hits CD and be just as well served as getting any SP full length.