Smashing Pumpkins - The Aeroplane Flies High Reissue, Deluxe Edition
Wow...this is a **** ton of Smashing Pumpkins. Like...almost too much. As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker and I'll buy almost anything the Pumpkins put out. So Billy Corgan can crap out a lame overpriced remaster of his past albums and I would still buy them. Thankfully, he seems to really be treating his hardcore fans. On top of the excellent remastering of the albums themselves, the deluxe editions of Gish, Siamese Dream, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie had a LOT of extra stuff...definitely only for the hardcore fans, though.
The Aeroplane Flies High was really only for hardcore fans all on its own when it first came out as it was a limited edition singles collection, so the fact that he released this at all with anything extra would have been great. Billy really went above and beyond for this, though...and more than any other release this one really shows a snapshot of the most interesting time in the band's history. They were clearly starting to come apart. The main songs show just how many Iha cuts got axed (which I would be pretty pissed off about, too). The extra tracks show that despite this tension, they could still jam it out with some great chemistry...just see the Gravity Demos or the 34 minute live version of Silver****. The Double Door show is also a great show with some rarely played songs.
One of the highlights here, though, is the 97 show in France. It's a great show and interesting to watch because this was after Jonathan Melvoin died and Jimmy got kicked out of the band with Matt Walker replacing him on drums. While the show is still great, the band looks clearly worn out. They also played Eye and The End Is the Beginning Is the End, which were really interesting to watch live. Just watch the show released with the deluxe edition of Mellon Collie and compare it to this show and see just how drained the band actually is.
Anyway...I'm not disappointed by this release at all, but now I can't wait for the reissue of Adore. It's also one step closer to finally hearing the fully realized version of Machina, which is what I've really been looking forward to.