Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, 30 Years Later｜Vinyl Monday
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Welcome (or welcome back) to Vinyl Monday! This is my series where I give the who/what/when/where/why and how I feel about classic albums in my collection. This week we celebrate Smashing Pumpkins’s defining moment, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, released 30 years ago this week. Subscribe for more Vinyl Monday!
Keep in touch:
Instagram: @abigaildevoe https://www.instagram.com/abigaildevoe/
My website: https://www.abigaildevoe.com
Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@abigaildevoe
SpunIt (it’s Letterboxd for vinyl geeks): spunit://spunit.io/friendProfile?profile=sZN9N7hTusP0ifQ20TdlzbBvtHd2
I cohost the Dolls Podcast!: https://open.spotify.com/show/4JsH0rsXUNjgvFLIbwYgnK?si=798d0d6d67864c4e
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unveiling-the-legends-dolls-of-the-60s-70s/id1749327932
Poetic Wax’s video on the Mellon Collie art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDAbx1VZQ60
and his Riviera Theater show video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s7f3jIgdwo
Timestamps:
intro – 0:00
art/packaging/personnel – 0:45
Mellon Collie – 6:46
track listing/release – 16:20
my thoughts – 25:35
thanks for watching! – 49:22
Music:
Intro Music: Yeah Yeah Yeah (Long) by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…) Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Outtro Music: Ticket To Nowhere Man by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…) Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Vinyl Monday logo by Callum: https://www.youtube.com/@clynaack
#vinyl #vinylcommunity #smashingpumpkins
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@abigaildevoe
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
no pumpkins were harmed in the making of this video.
what’s your favorite album from the 90s? comment below!
@gardensaladdude90
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
LETS FUCKIN GOOOOOO I found your channel through the Siamese Dream review
@luiscmusik
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
this video is fantastique!!!
@KingGenji
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
One of my favorite albums. Porcelina and Muzzle are especially wonderful. I do agree that a Beautiful and Lily should have been shelved.
@magusking9215
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
By Starlight ? No way…
@21Sandshark
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
My take on Mellon Collie was that it was the Days of Future Passed of the 90's in terms of theme and ambition. Though in execution it is closer to the White Album as to how "all over the place" it was.
@TheCCNetwork
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Tonight Tonight, and Mellon Collie as a whole got me into SP nearly 20 years ago… as they also became my first ‘band I fell in love with’. Re-listening to this album for the first time in many years, the day after I saw them live in my small English hometown this past summer was quite the experience. Reminding me why both the young teen and the closing on middle aged perennially depressed adult I am now, can equally empathise and envelope themselves in its timeless audible tour-de-force. I love Adore and Siamese Dream roughly equally, but MCIS is another beast by comparison. The fact Lily got on the album but Set Ray To Jerry didn’t, still irks me to this day.
Also, using Billy’s ‘weee-’ from 1979’s chorus as a censor sound was a creative master-stroke. Couldn’t stop laughing in pure glee when I noticed it.
@nome_sconosciuto
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Emotional breakdown timestamp:
32:27 (you should have seen it coming)
@gnarly-narwhal
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
I'm SOOOO deep into the Machina box, I'm not even thinking about Mellon Collie. 30th anniversaries are kinda weird too. We just had the 25th…
@wzev628
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Firstly thank you for this. A brilliant review! You have given me a new appreciation for XYU. I think the last 5 tracks should be seen as one suite completely separate from XYU – that's the problem with reviewing something on vinyl when the album was originally intended for CD. I think if Billy set out to make a single album, so many of these tracks would never have been written – its eclecticism and grandeur is because of the double album mindset he was in. I doubt he would have written cupid de locke, farewell and goodnight, beautiful, we only come out at night for Siamese Dream part 2 – that said , we probably wouldn't have gotten Love and Tales of a Scorched Earth either ( a good thing, perhaps?). I agree its flaw is its length but it also gives the album its synergetic charm – I mean take the opening track, its a pretty rubbish piano piece but its sets the mood and it works well as an opener for a project of this magnitude. Whereas Siamese Dream is fluid sheer perfection (''lacquered sheen''), Melon Collie is a mess of an album – but its versatility, when i'm in the right mood, makes for a more interesting listen.
@eclecticselections2222
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Abi! This might be your best video yet! Fantastic outfit, make up, depth of research 👌 and passion for the music! Love it, love it! Look forward to Mondays these days!
@davidyurch4446
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Examining the cover and inside art of Mellon Collie while listening to the album made me understand how much an album's artwork can act as a lens through which to listen to the music and give it extra depth.
The cover and the Mother Goose-meets-Alice in Wonderland imagery of the booklet complement the album's more majestic, whimsical songs, but they're also JUST silly enough that the more metal-based songs like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" or "Zero" don't come as a complete surprise. It helped make the album feel monumental in a way that was in line with the hubristic double albums of the 70's, while at the same time embodying the ironic sensibilities of the 90's.
It made me really GET what Billy wanted The Smashing Pumpkins to be.
@drizzd1
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
I almost never follow up when youtubers recommend other youtubers but i went and subscribed to poetic wax without watching a video lol
@spacemissing
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
People who like this kind of so called music are out of their gourds.
Screeching, squalling noise is unbearable.
@spaceengineer-music
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
If the star wasn't there, what would be there ? I don't understand..nothing ?
@rayg2724
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Loved hearing your art history perspective!!!
@poorpancake2807
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Thank you for comparing Porcelina to XYU, I never made that connection to the Yin and Yang those songs could share. I once made my own ‘double’ version of the album that separated the ‘soft’ songs from the ‘heavy’ songs because I felt they were best enjoyed separately. Either way, my standouts are XYU, Where Boys Fear to Tread and Muzzle
@jonreznick5531
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
I was born after 1975 so all the albums having their 50 right now were Always There, but realizing that Mellon Collie is 30 years old… replace my goddamned hip!
@anthonyaiello4343
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
No one at the time thought of the Pumpkins as grunge, not at all. They were a Chicago band from Chicago's killer alt scene. Part of a larger alt movement with grunge, sure, but not at all the same thing.
@fluffskunk
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
I've rarely felt more seen that Billy's ravioli quote.
@lizardman7718
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Yay! One of my go-to fall albums
@tymime
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
clearly I'm missing the reference at 19:50
@PoisonedWails
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
What sorcery is this? YouTube actually recommended something I like. I used to love the Pumpkins. I still do, but I used to, too. 🤘🎃🤘
@slartyfretwerk3905
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Dammit, I think I've got the CD somewhere, been hunting for it, it's in my iTunes library, no idea what's happened to it… Just ordered the vinyl box set to get over the stress of brain fog hunting and detective work… Can't find any of the other pumpkins albums I apparently have either….. that's five expensive but worth it purchases now because of your excellent channel.
@GeoffPlays
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Hmmm fave 90s albums? A lot of this is hard bc lots of bands that started in the 90s got better in the early 00s so it's hard to pinpoint the 90s stuff. For me I'd say maybe Never, Neverland and Set the World on Fire by Annihilator, Fashion Nugget and Prolonging the Magic by CAKE, II by Kingston Wall, everything Spock's Beard was doing, Sonic Origami and Sea of Light by Uriah Heep, Flying Dog by Paul Gilbert, Californication by RHCP, Counterparts and Roll the Bones by Rush, Dookie by Green Day, System of a Down by SOAD, Rust in Peace and Countdown to Extinction by Megadeth, Nevermind by Nirvana, Blue Album by Weezer.
I was born in 1995, and grew up listening to quite a bit of country, but all of that kinda blurs together for me between 90s and 00s, I know there are some solid tunes (that are nostalgic for me anyhow) from Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, and Toby Keith in that sorta time frame.
you ever jam to any Spock's Beard? Their vinyls are hard to get, especially for the Neal Morse era, but even if you gotta go digital or CD they're worth a listen if you enjoy prog. Also, for some 70s rock recs I'd say Budgie, Babe Ruth, Sir Lord Baltimore, Uriah Heep, and Caravan. Also idk if you listen to much newer prog stuff but Brass Camel just released their 2nd album a few months ago and it slaps. Also Threshold is pretty good if you like some easy listening prog metal. Their album Legends of the Shires is a modern classic.
@spookey2004
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
As nasly and at times admittedly grating as Billy’s vocals could be (love this album but having to hear him for 2 hours is a lot to ask) I really admire his versatility, he can sing soft and sweet reflecting his romantic side but just a song later he can snarl and sneer dripping with angst and cynicism. I’d argue that his raw and admittedly not very pretty vocals add to how emotive and effective they are. Also shoutout to autumn noctrine, def see why that was cut but god that demo is so fun
@MaTTheWish
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
One of the greatest duel albums of all time. And I didn't like Billy Corgans voice when I first heard him. I'm glad it finally clicked for me, such a powerful album
@brettstrausser3846
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Fantastic review, as usual! Please review the "ATUM – A Rock Opera in Three Acts" album(s)! I think it is brilliant and deserving of more attention.
@mayaplaysprog
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
20:14 ok haha but like when IS the Meat Puppets episode?
@noogie1
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
One of the first cds I ever got, I turned 14 just a couple days after the cd came out. The Smashing Pumpkins were the first band shirt I ever got. I could go on and on about how much this album meant to me.
@tenkarabadger5244
October 22, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Nailed the look and the review. Never thought I would listen to a 50 minute album review. Well done.
Comments are closed.