Smashing Pumpkins' New 21-Song LP Will Be a Double Album

"We're kind of back in the lane of taking a risk," says Billy Corgan

Photo: Matt Forsythe

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Feb 4, 2020

Last month, Billy Corgan revealed Smashing Pumpkins were at work on a follow-up to 2018's Shiny and Oh So Bright Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun, and he's now revealed the forthcoming 21-track effort will be a double album.

Speaking with the Tennessean, Corgan recalled of the aforementioned Vol. 1, "It was put out as a formal album, but I said at the time — and I did mean it — in my eyes, it wasn't an album. We didn't approach it like we've approached every other album we'd ever done, which is more like making a movie."

He went on to explain, "In many ways, this is the first real album [since the reunion] where we've hunkered down and made a classic, 'Let's throw it all at the wall and see what happens' type of Pumpkins record. I've been working on it for over a year. It currently is at 21 songs, and we're going to release it as a double this year."

Corgan had previously described the 21-song set as "pretty different — in a good way, I think," adding that "everybody that's heard it likes it a lot, so that's a good sign."

"This is the first album since the album that came out in 2000, Machina, where me, James and Jimmy worked on something for a very long time," Corgan offered of the material. "It's got a greater conceptual base, and it's probably a wider swath of music. The last one was kind of like, 'Let's just jump in, record some stuff real fast, and let it be what it is'...so I'm excited about this, because we're kind of back in the lane of taking a risk, and trying to bring something new to the table, as opposed to just aping what we're known for."

Corgan reunited (almost) all of Smashing Pumpkins' original members for 2018's Shiny and Oh So Bright Vol. 1 and its accompanying tour. He released solo album Cotillions late last year.

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