Smashing Pumpkins

Gish/Siamese Dream Virgin ****

The Chicago alt darlings from the 1990s do the reissue/ repackage shuffle with their first two albums (which many consider their best). What is most remarkable is just how potent and full their sound was for the time.

Frontman Billy Corgan trawled through the archives and – unlike many of these packages – unearthed some great material from both album sessions. The originals have been remastered and contain extras and rarities, and there’s also a live Pumpkins DVD thrown in for good measure.

Gish, their indie label debut cobbled together for a few thousand dollars and released in 1991, is the lesser- known work. On it the Pumpkins refined their hard rock sound and allied it to a big ELO-type production process.

Gishis very much the effort of an inchoate band, but with ideas flying all over the place, and a real sense of the group's unique sonic dynamics coming together. A bit like Nirvana's Bleach, Gishwas overlooked until the Pumpkins broke into the charts. As debuts go, it's a taut and muscular affair.

Siamese Dream(1993) is where it all came together for the Pumpkins. More than just an alt.guitar album, it showcased Corgan's compositional talent and his underrated abilities as an arranger. Cherub Rock, Todayand Disarmstill pack a propulsive drive, with the latter track nothing short of a masterclass in rock music.

The bonus content reveals the building blocks of the albums. Working through it you’re reminded of how neglected in terms of legacy Smashing Pumpkins are. Stupidly labelled as the “new Nirvana”, there was a lot more to their sound than their odd grunge inflections.

Corgan has said that he found it “shocking” to listen to the original masters because of their comparatively poor sound. Given the band’s layered approach, the sonic upholstering carried out here makes a discernible difference. A quality product. See smashingpumpkins.com

Download tracks: I Am One, Tristessa, Today, Rocket, Disarm