When The Smashing Pumpkins released “Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness” back in 1995, it was a cultural event. A sprawling, emotional double album that mixed rage, beauty, and ambition in equal measure. For many of us, it became the soundtrack of that era. I remember when it came out, I listened to it endlessly. Couldn’t get tired of it. Every song felt like a different universe, yet part of the same galaxy that Billy Corgan built from distortion and melancholy.
Now, three decades later, the Smashing Pumpkins are giving this monumental record another life. On 21 November, they’ll release a 30th anniversary edition of “Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness“, available on vinyl, CD, and digital formats. The highlight? 80 minutes of previously unreleased live recordings from the band’s 1996 tour , their final large-scale run with the original lineup: Billy Corgan, James Iha, D’arcy Wretzky, and Jimmy Chamberlin.
“Unearthing these live recordings from the original lineup’s true, last large-scale tour was a labour of love”, says Corgan. “Once we blew apart in 1996, we were never quite the same: emotionally or spiritually. Thankfully, I can say this as the band is now enjoying our greatest public success since that time, and one can hear in these tapes the raw power that such nascent faith afforded us, then, and the will and wisdom to persevere that followed”.
For fans who already grabbed the previous reissues in 2012 and 2022, this new edition still has plenty to offer. The live cuts include songs from “Mellon Collie“, of course, but also from “Siamese Dream“, including “Geek U.S.A.” and “Rocket”, plus a storming “Siva” from “Gish“.
The limited-edition vinyl box looks like a collector’s dream: six LPs featuring the full album and live recordings, a hardbound book with new liner notes from Corgan, seven frameable lithographs, a custom tarot card deck, and a velvet slipcase complete with a cloth carrying bag.
“Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness” remains one of the defining albums of the ’90s, a grand, ambitious statement that captured the strange beauty of that decade’s alternative spirit. Hearing it reborn, with the energy of those 1996 performances, feels like reconnecting with an old friend who still knows exactly how you felt back then.
Thirty years later, The Smashing Pumpkins remind us why that album mattered so much, and why, for some of us, it never stopped playing.