Mary Star Of The Sea

He can change his name to Billy Burke, ditch the Smashing Pumpkins in favour of forming a new supergroup, but Billy Corgan just can’t help sounding exactly like Billy Corgan.

Those who loved the Pumpkins circa the sublime Siamese Dream should rejoice: although Zwan exhibit a far more poppy, straight-ahead musical approach, Corgan and his one remaining Pumpkins bandmate Jimmy Chamberlin seem to have rediscovered the freshness and liveliness that characterised that album. The grandiloquent Goth-rock leanings and lily-gilding tendencies of albums like Machina/The Machines Of God have largely been purged, and the music has been given room to breathe once more.

Lyrically, Corgan remains obsessed by God, and by religion in general. But with Zwan he succeeds in weaving his lyrics into the music far more subtlely than of yore. A wistful, yearning quality and a surprising candour permeate many of the best tracks – at one point, Corgan even sings: “I use the same words to say the same things”. Now that’s hardly something to which Mick Jagger would admit.

Some tracks do prove surplus to requirements, though. ‘Baby Let’s Rock!’, ‘Ride A Black Swan’ and ‘Endless Summer’ are mediocre, lacklustre affairs. But Zwan more than compensate for these minor glitches with melodic, hook-filled tunes such as ‘El Sol’, ‘Yeah!’, ‘Desire’ and the glorious harmonica-led closer, ‘Come With Me’. Album set piece ‘Jesus, I/Mary Star Of The Sea’ is equally gorgeous, segueing from one mesmerising arrangement into another over an epic fourteen minutes. Amazingly, the song seems not even a fraction too long.

Welcome back Mr Corgan.