10 Perfect Albums That Will Make You Love Grunge Music
9. Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins
In the era where everything gravitated towards Seattle, the Smashing Pumpkins were a bit of an outlier back in the day. Hailing from Chicago, Billy Corgan definitely had his finger on the pulse of alternative music also, making songs that had the same kind of haze of grunge while also having a strong gift for melody on the album Gish. After bringing in soon to be Nirvana producer Butch Vig for Siamese Dream though, Billy wanted to aim much bigger than what he was hearing out of just the alternative movement.
Coming from the same time as acts like the Melvins, Siamese Dream feels like Billy Corgan trying to write the alternative version of a AM rock record, taking all of the tropes of the golden age of the '70s and channeling it into his songwriting. As much as you can hear influences from people like the Smiths and The Pixies in some of these tracks, you can also hear faint wisps of bands like Journey in the mix as well, with the choruses on songs like Cherub Rock reaching for the stadium sized audiences that rock's glory days knew.
The lyrics haven't changed though, with the themes of alienation and not quite being understood sprawling out on songs like Today or the pure ambience of a track like Soma. It may not have been the most underground record of the bunch, but hearing songs like these made you feel like maybe being a misfit wasn't all that bad after all.