Originally Posted by duga

Just warning you...I have studied the Smashing Pumpkins like a religion, so I won't be able to stop myself from talking about them.

Don't misunderstand me about Adore. I love it...it is an amazing album. Lyrically, yes...it definitely is the strongest. However, I still stick to the idea that as Smashing Pumpkins and not Billy Corgan's solo project, Machina II was much much stronger. Pretend Adore never existed and go Mellon Collie to Machina to Machina II...it sounds like the natural progression the band should have been heading for the whole time. Billy Corgan even admitted that though Adore has grown on him over time, he still feels he didn't achieve the sound he was going for and considers it a failed project.

Also, Machina and Machina II sound completely different, so I'm not even sure you listened to them both the whole way through. Machina is a polished progressive "cyber punk" album as Billy puts it full of chord progressions that blend into one another (save for the few riff heavy moments like on "The Everlasting Gaze" and "Heavy Metal Machine"). Machina II maintains the progressive edge he was going for at the time while sticking to the pop sensibilities that made his other albums such hits. Honestly, if I were going to call anything cyber punk it would be Machina II and not I...I just seems like progressive alternative (yeah, I just made that genre up).