Siamese Dream

If, as the coolest of the cool are prone to say, grunge is dead, nobody has told it. More importantly, nobody's informed all the common folk who, at least in the States, are pushing Pearl Jam's Ten into its eighty-third week on the Billboard Album Charts.

Having reluctantly taken on the form of a friendly ghost, grunge is now flitting about the planet, and apparently swapping 'Tricks To Play On The Living' with the Ghost of Heavy Metal Past. 'Cherub Rock,' the splendid first single off Smashing Pumpkins'Siamese Dream and the most recent collaboration from beyond the grave, demonstrates everything about grunge that should be allowed to live as well as a few things it has learned from metal.

And while at times the album frustratingly strives to emulate the Ghost of Grunge Past (namely Nirvana's Nevermind), Siamese Dream proves that there is, indeed, life after death.

In the same way that I'm convinced that were 'What's Up?' by 4 Non Blondes performed by Jon Bon Jovi or Cher no one I associate with would like it as much as they do, I know that were Siamese Dream packaged in a more generic heavy metal/hard rock manner, I wouldn't have given it the time of day. A vague recollection of seeing Smashing Pumpkins support Red Hot Chili Peppers in the flannel years and an indie-ish slant in the Chicago band's marketing has fooled me, and I find myself repeatedly listening to an album that's drawing a squigly line between metal and grunge. And liking it.

Characterised by riff-oriented, grinding guitars and vocals that toy with notions of indie laid-backness and metal screaming - kind of like Ride and Poison jamming - Smashing Pumpkins are refreshingly changeable 'Today' is psychedlic metal the likes of which half the metal bands in existence wouldn't have the subtlety to create. 'Hummer' is almost ambient with gritty guitars creating occasional upheavals, and 'Rocket' makes Manchestery comparisons inevitable with its circular rhythms and breathy vocals.

Lyrically, the band walk the same line between metal and more indie-oriented work following up lines like "The killer in me is the killer in you" with "I send this smile over you," but start to degenerate more and more into formulaic hard rock as the album goes on, with the odd redemptionary acoustic number thrown in for good measure.

Still, the occasional lapse into genericism aside, Siamese Dream is a pleasant surprise of an album from a band who may actually help precipitate grunge's reincarnation.

Tara McCarthy