This record snuck up on me over time. I didn't get around to it until a few years ago, when I scored a super clean copy on vinyl. When I dropped the needle, I didn't expect to like it, having heard many of these songs a million times in the background while shopping at Caldor and Marshalls with my mom as a kid. Turns out that, when heard back to back, these songs are GREAT, and taken as a whole, this record is AWESOME. It's way better than wallpaper. Its reputation is well-deserved. I love it.

I was in college when this was released. It was a Really Big Deal. To me, Gish and Siamese Dream are indisputable end-to-end masterworks of the era, and the Pisces Iscariot collection gathered together some quiet classics. So Mellon Collie was released with great expectation and considered closely in smoky dorm rooms for the better part of a year. This thing is neither a masterwork nor a classic. It remains as stubbornly bloated and overcooked today as was upon release. Lots of highlights; too many lowlights. The rat in a cage and the loneliess is happiness and god is empty stuff, coupled with the prog rock production, revealed Billy Corgan to be the clumsy and hamfisted rock writer he remains to this day. The rockers are weaker than the gentler stuff. I still love the second half of the second disc; there's some beautiful music there. And to be fair there's plenty of excellent songs sprinkled throughout. But getting from start to finish remains a slog for me, so many years later. A mixed bag, still. 3 stars.

Yuck, Ten. *URGH* I loved this stuff upon release; I was 17 years old. *ROWWWWRRR* But I hate listening to this record now. *EEEEEE* Why in the world did this band let Vedder grunt and grimace and emote from his calculatedly tortured guts in every space available to him? *EEEOOOH* Who green-lit this approach? *UNNNNGH* One star, plus one star for Release, which I still love. *OOOOOH* There are also a couple of gems among the various b-sides and toss-offs from this period. *ARGGHGLLLEBARGLE-HUH!* But give me No Code or Yield any day of the week. *UNNNGH* This record is gross. *HUNH* And the 20 year anniversary \"redux\" remix is even more unlistenable. *YEEEUGH* There's no salvaging this thing, sorry. *AAAAAOOOORGH*

Dang, we're on a real 90s kick around here. This was another record released when I was a teen that I am now judging in hindsight and with the passage of 30 years. This one still holds up, mostly. As with any of this kind of stuff--during an industry-wide race to publish woe-is-me diary entries as song lyrics--there are some clunky moments here. But the sonic textures and sound choices made by ol' Trent are still moving, arresting, awesome. Some of this still freaks me out; the whispered messages in the opening track are still frightening as fuck. Reptile is sui generis, constructed entirely from blocks of noise. And Hurt remains a sad bastard classic. I still hang with The Downward Sprial. Even taken a couple myself, since 1994. So this record still resonates with me.

I love hip-hop, but I don't often fuck with Jay-Z. I know he's Good At Rap, but I just never listen to his stuff. But when I do, I listen to this joint. The Black Album too, I guess. That I.Z.Z.O. (H.O.V.A) track is fire. And late in the record we get an appearance from the force of nature known as young Eminem. It's all Good Rap. That I never really listen to.

I'll never forget hearing this record for the first time. I'd been reading Please Kill Me, and I played this over and over in the house in the gulch with the dogs running around and the outbuilding full of rotting trash. Frankenstein is a bit plodding, but everything else on here is absolutely stellar. The back half is fantastic. David Johansen is making excellent folk music these days, by the way. It's better than Buster Poindexter, even. Anyway, classic slab of trashy proto-punk sleaze rock here. Lurve.

Ugh. I hate AC/DC. Not my jam. Music for high school jocks and other teenaged aholes. Enough said. I know all of these songs and I don't like any of them. One star. Next.