A battered alt-rock demigod comes out swinging.  Full text...

The riff-heavy return of alt.rock's angsty messiah.  Full text...

Zeitgiest — the 40-year-old Chicagoan’s first Smashing Pumpkins CD in seven years — is a striking return to the heavy, song-driven form of early albums like Siamese Dream and Gish.   Full text...

Billy Corgan is, on Zeitgeist, back to being a walking, living, breathing contradiction. For this, we should be grateful.  Full text...

This resumption of a brand name and sensibility brings the thunder; if you're nostalgic for the '90s, Zeitgeist is like curling up with a warm Marshall stack. But as with anyone eager to woo back a fan base, self-parody sets in, in the most metallic moments. Later on, more moderate anthems like ''Neverlost'' prove he hasn't entirely forsaken melody for Jack Black-baiting riffage.  Full text...

Smashing Pumpkins return with Zeitgeist, an uneven but more then acceptable "first" effort from Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, sans d'Arcy, Iha, or even Auf der Maur  Full text...

This might not be the same Smashing Pumpkins that you fell love with the first time around, but if you give them a chance you might learn to like this line-up too.  Full text...

The riffs are torrential, the tunes are memorable and the words – doomsday clocks, bleeding orchids – are frequently adolescent. That said, That’s the Way (My Love Is) reveals the truth about Corgan: he is much more effective as an attentive romantic than as a prophet of apocalypse.  Full text...

There have certainly been less creditable comeback albums than this, but the sound of "Zeitgeist" echoes the past. Corgan's concerns may be contemporary, but his soundtrack simply doesn't match.  Full text...

Zeitgeist's replication of that old SP sound is impressive, despite the lack of half the original lineup...it's not like Corgan ever let D'Arcy or Iha do anything in the studio anyway.  Full text...

Zeigeist largely avoids the often comic excesses of later Pumpkins records, and it is not as anonymous as his the output of his interim alt.rock supergroup, Zwan. But calling an album Zeitgeist is a terrible idea unless you're really up to speed with popular culture, and Zeitgeist most fully displays Corgan's roots as a nerdy, 70s stadium-rock fan.  Full text...