The bonus CD comes with a large selection of demos and alternative versions (mostly unreleased) of Gish-era songs, while the DVD offers a rather grainy, but fascinating, live performance from The Metro in Chicago, dating from August 1990, before Gish had even been recorded. There is a naivety, innocence and freshness to the music which is often the case with debuts.
Whether you agree with Corgan’s retrospective verdict that “there aren’t really a lot of great songs” on the record, what is not up for debate is the commitment, in terms of the production, performances and energy on the album. In fact it was the largest selling independent album ever in the US at the time. Recorded with the then unknown Butch Vig in Wisconsin in 1990/1, Gish would unexpectedly become a relatively big seller. He was keen to take the pressure off, and allow the band to make the record they needed to make at that time, as well as ensuring they were more experienced and ‘ready’ when it came to delivering the follow-up to a major label. Gish was originally released on Caroline Records, a deliberate decision by Billy Corgan, even though they had just been signed by a major – Virgin Records (this was part of the agreement). The albums also have ‘reimagined’ cover art, which you can see in the photos below.
#Gish album cover code#
This helps put the recordings of Gish and Siamese Dream into some kind of historical perspective, for those not familiar with the early history of the band.īoth reissues come in a lift-off lid box similar to those used by EMI for recent Beach Boys and REM reissues, except that these have much thicker cardboard and an expensive looking metallic finish, to both the lid and the base of the boxes.Īs well as a 24-page booklet, in each box we get three discs in card sleeves, a series of photos/art cards (6 in Gish, 13 in Siamese Dream) and a voucher with a unique code to redeem and download a free “rare unreleased track” from.
In addition, frontman Billy Corgan co-produced the reissues, and provides track-by-track annotations on all the songs on both albums, as well as being interviewed by David Wild for the booklet essays. Great remastered audio, packaged with care and attention, and a good balance, in terms of the price/content ratio, with each set containing two CDs of music and a live performance DVD. The reissues of the Smashing Pumpkin’s first two albums are everything you could hope for in a deluxe expanded release.
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