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MACHINA/The Machines of God | 
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| Artist: The Smashing Pumpkins
Label: Virgin Records Us
Category: Music
List Price: $17.98
Buy New: $13.99
You Save: $3.99 (22%)
New (48) Used (45) Collectible (1) from $2.99
Rating:  672 reviews
Sales Rank: 4624
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 48936
UPC: 724384893620
EAN: 0724384893620
ASIN: B000042OI4
Release Date: February 29, 2000
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Everlasting Gaze | | • | Raindrops + Sunshowers | | • | Stand Inside Your Love | | • | I of the Mourning | | • | The Sacred and Profane | | • | Try, Try, Try | | • | Heavy Metal Machine | | • | This Time | | • | The Imploding Voice | | • | Glass and the Ghost Children | | • | Wound | | • | The Crying Tree of Mercury | | • | With Every Light | | • | Blue Skies Bring Tears | | • | Age of Innocence |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
With the doubters hovering round his band following the rock-is-dead pronouncement that preceded the flawed electronic dabblings of Adore, Machina finds Billy Corgan desperate to prove everyone, not least himself, wrong. On their fifth album, the Pumpkins attempt to reclaim the higher ground they dominated with the peerless Siamese Dream and the sprawling 28-track opus Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. As a result, they hit the ground running on Machina, exploding into life with "The Everlasting Gaze" and its firestorm of guitars and heavy metaphysical thunder. There are some quintessential Pumpkins moments here, notably "Stand Inside Your Love," which soars away on a spiraling guitar solo, and "Try, Try, Try," which taps into Corgan's ever-present melancholy. At 73 minutes long, Machina overstays its welcome, beginning to flag, ironically, at the self-aggrandizing "Heavy Metal Machine." No matter--the Pumpkins have made their point with brutal grace. --Mike Pattenden
Album Description
Japanese version of 2000 release & follow up to 'Adore' Produced by Billy Corgan and Flood, the same team that produced 'Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness'. Includes the bonus track 'Speed Kills'. 2000 release. Standard jewel case.
Album Details
Japanese Version featuring a Bonus Track: Speed Kills.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 667 more reviews...
 At their creative peak, arguably their best. October 28, 2008
Beautiful songwriting. I need to hear these songs live.
The Everlasting Gaze, Stand Inside Your Love, Heavy Metal Machine, Glass and the ghost Children and Blue Skies Bring Tears are easily better than anything else the Pumpkins have ever written. Every other track on the album is solid as well. Over the years I've mostly left Mellon Collie and earlier albums to collect dust. They're great as well, but this and Adore really are the best. Compositionally and emotionally.
It's also important to consider that the tracks making up Machina are not the entirety of what the Pumpkins created during this period. Machina II: Friends and Enemies of Modern music is a 2 disk collection comprising the rest of the Machina story. This is meant to be enjoyed as a three disk set. Slow down and Vanity are great. My favorites though are Saturnine, If there is a God, Speed Kills, Heavy Metal Machine (Alt Mix), Blue skies bring tears (Alt Mix), Glass' Theme, Cash Car Star, White Spider, Go, Innocence, Soul Power, Dross and In my body. lol, I didn't leave much out there.
The bottom line. Machina owns.
"For every chemical, you trade a piece of your soul - with no return." June 13, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Contrary to popular belief, The Smashing Pumpkins have never (as of June 13th 2007 ;P) released a poor album. Even their three outtakes albums, Pisces Iscariot (1994), The Aeroplane Flies High (1996) and MACHINA II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) stand up favourably against most of their contemporaries' strongest work.
MACHINA however, is deemed by many to be their worst. Not so. The album's opening six tracks surpass even Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness' (1995) as both a demonstration of their versatility and a signal of intent.
From the incendiary opener 'The Everlasting Gaze' mad-genius singer/guitarist/songwriter Billy Corgan and incomparable skinsman Jimmy Chamberlin bulldoze their way through eight of MACHINA's fifteen tracks, dissecting affecting ballads ('Raindrops & Sunshowers' and the breathtaking 'Stand Inside Your Love'), existential threnodies ('Glass & the Ghost Children' and 'The Crying Tree of Mercury') and plaintive odes ('Try, Try, Try' and 'With Every Light').
MACHINA is also deeply conceptual, even when compared to previous albums, with the album's extraordinary artwork and prose conjuring a phantasmic, seemingly post-apocalyptic alternate reality that puts Nine Inch Nails' dystopian Year Zero (2007) concept to shame. The cryptic story of 'Glass and the Machines of God' is more difficult to engage with than Mellon Collie...'s upon cursory inspection, but further investigation into MACHINA's numerous ancilliary forms is rewarding for those keen to determine a fraction of Corgan's apparent psychosis.
The problem many fans have with MACHINA however, lies in its 'wall of sound' production, as opposed to the Pumpkins' infamous, painstaking multitracking of guitar parts. Nevertheless, as with Mellon Collie..., it was proved that the heavier the involvement of second guitarist James Iha in the recording process, the stronger the album sounds. Additionally, Iha also played many of MACHINA's bass parts, following the resignation toward the end of the sessions of original bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a series of confrontations with Corgan.
Whilst considered the Pumpkins' final studio album for close to five years, Corgan and Chamberlin have been hard at work for the past 18 months readying the band's sixth album, Zeitgeist, due for release on July 9th. Neither D'arcy, Iha (who Corgan publicly blamed for the band's original dissolution) nor Melissa auf der Maur (who took over bass duties for MACHINA's subsequent live dates) are involved in the new project, with newcomers Jeff Schroeder and Ginger Reyes taking on guitar and bass respectively for the Pumpkins' new live incarnation.
SP at their best... December 15, 2006
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
A thoroughly enjoyable prog-rock CD. Especially those last 2 tracks...!
GORGEOUS!!!!! November 9, 2006
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
Stand inside your love.. one of the greatest songs i ever heard.. one of the greatest songs ever made..
If you truely LOVE music, you will very much appreciate this album!!!! September 10, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"I blow the dust off my guitar, in the attic with the stars..I read your letters, to feel better, the tears upon my faded ink."
You can sense all the emotion in Billy Corgans lyrics here, from "I of the Mourning", as in many other of the songs. This album is surely underrated in the commercial view. There are a lot of great songs here. The first single, "The Everlasting Gaze", brings out the hard riffs that pumpkins fans of past albums love. Then into a softer mellow mood with "Raindrops and Sunshowers". These songs are all great when the sound is turned up loud. Sing to it, you will enjoy it.
"Stand Inside Your Love", the 2nd single, and probably best recieved, is an awsome love song. The words are beautiful and well written.
Well my favorite tracks, and probably most hardcore pumpkins fans favorites include:
"I of the Mourning", "This Time", "Age of Innocence" a wonderful closer to the album. I even enjoy the 10 minute haunting "Glass and the Ghost Children".
All in all people tend to think this album was over produced, but I love it to death. One of my favorite albums all time. I cant tell you how many times I've listened to this one. Most bands evolve when it comes to the style of their music. The Smashing Pumpkins Sure have. You can definetely see the maturity in this album, as well as the poorly recieved yet excellent, "Adore" album.
And the rumors have now become reality of a new album by the pumpkins. Most likely early 2007 for this album. I'm waiting with anticipation.
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