Spotify and YouTube are now streaming The Smashing Pumpkins’ new single “Solara.” The song is the first Pumpkins release to feature members Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin playing together since 2000’s “Untitled.” “Untitled” was Iha’s last Pumpkins recording, while Jimmy Chamberlin’s was 2009’s “FOL.” D’arcy Wretzky is the only original Smashing Pumpkins member not featured on the song.
Corgan sings during the chorus, ‘Tear down the sun/break down the sun/I’m not everyone.’
He also sings, ‘I am trying nothing but a body in my mind/I’m nothing but a body in my mind/I feel that something ain’t right.’
The song sounds a bit like Zeitgeist with better production mixed with Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. There are definitely shades of Corgan and Chamberlin’s last song together, 2009’s “FOL” as well. “Solara” was originally written during the Monuments to an Elegy era, but was ditched as the followup Day for Night was abandoned.
It definitely has some similarities to “Anti-Hero” off of Monuments to an Elegy, but is a much better song and doesn’t have the cringy at times lyrics that song had. Corgan’s clean vocal production and Chamberlin’s drumming definitely elevate this song, and while it won’t go on anybody’s favorite Pumpkins songs of all time list, it’s a solid starting point for this new incarnation of the band.
