3.6 + Ugh, I've had a love/hate relationship with this record since it came out. SP was my first love, and I fell hard for their "Siamese Dream" sound, that blend of neo-psychedelia, chamber/dream rock that was swirling with loving flourescence. Billy Corgan was a long-haired flower child with a breathy, angelic voice tinged with just enough acrid edge. With "Mellon Collie", Corgan became a bald-headed vampire and the music took a much darker and uglier turn. Almost thirty years later, my opinion is still tinged by a sense of disappointment. I still think much of this record isn't very good. Some songs should have never left Corgan's notebook ("We Only Come Out At Night"). Others would've better served alongside a vast catalog of B-sides ("Galapagos"). And of the hundreds of times I've listened to this record, I've probably listened to "Tales of a Scorched Earth" all of three times (still sucks). Despite all of this, I admire Corgan and the Pumpkins for pulling off what felt like a coup at the time, a true flex on all their haters. The amount of music and the breadth of genres here is truly staggering. To pull this all off, they underwent some months of brutally intense, assembly-line recording sessions. Looking back, I wonder if Corgan miscalculated. Being on top of the world, I can understand an ambition to maintain one's eminence. But given the band's impending implosion shortly following the recording and promoting of this record, it's clear that that unchecked ambition destroyed what could've been a gentler dally with fame. What could've been if they had focused on the 13 good songs on here, and worked them over obsessively as they had on "Siamese Dream"?