Music / Adore

And you'll always be my whore,
'cause you're the one that I adore.

Adore is the fourth official studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins, released around summer 1998.^note The exact date depended upon the country, but the earliest release was May 29 in the European Union and the latest was June 2 in the U.S./Canada. The LP edition, which was mono and used a different mix, followed a few months later on August 18. (Amongst other differences, the brief outro "17" was omitted and "For Martha" had a different arrangement that was about a minute shorter.)

After the mass success of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and a subsequent world tour, Adore was surrounded by considerable hype from the get-go, with MTV going as far as christening it "one of the most anticipated albums of 1998". However, with this level of public expectation combining with a myriad of interpersonal issues, the album's production was marred by problems such that frontman Billy Corgan retrospectively summarized it as "a band falling apart".

These issues were namely the temporary departure of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin due to drug abuse and a number of issues that fell upon frontman Billy Corgan — the recent death of his mother due to cancer, the end of his marriage, and a general sense of musical burnout.

As the band had already experimented outside of their traditional rock sound on Mellon Collie, with the immensely successful electronic-influenced "1979" among other songs to show for it, they decided to hone in on electronica. Hoping to maintain this Progressive Rock-inspired experimentation, Corgan began envisioning a hybrid of folk rock and electronica that was as "ancient" as it was "futuristic". The result was the much more musically subdued approach that Adore was defined by, eschewing the band's pre-established heavier elements for mellow, ethereal soundscapes taking influence from the likes of industrial rock, gothic rock, synthpop and dream pop, and exhibiting more melancholic lyrics (which Corgan actually wrote before writing the melodies, a first for the band). In a sense, it actually manages to be both Lighter and Softer and Darker and Edgier than the band's other material at the same time.

Adore was regarded as a commercial disappointment compared to their previous two albums, and its vastly new approach divided the band's fanbase while earning universal acclaim from critics. However, its status among fans has risen over the years — something that Corgan predicted himself at the time of its release.

As part of the band's campaign to reissue its discography from its original run, a box set was released in September 2014 containing remasters of the CD and vinyl editions, four CDs' worth of additional bonus content, and a bonus DVD featuring a contemporary live performance in its entirety, totalling to 108 tracks of just over nine hours of music.

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Tracklist:

1. "To Sheila" (4:46)
2. "Ava Adore" (4:21)
3. "Perfect" (3:23)
4. "Daphne Descends" (4:39)
5. "Once Upon a Time" (4:06)
6. "Tear" (5:53)
7. "Crestfallen" (4:09)
8. "Appels + Oranjes" (3:35)
9. "Pug" (4:47)
10. "The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete" (4:35)
11. "Annie-Dog" (3:38)
12. "Shame" (6:40)
13. "Behold! The Night Mare" (5:13)
14. "For Martha" (8:18)
15. "Blank Page" (4:58)
16. "17" (0:17)

Vinyl edition / reissue disc 2

1. "To Sheila" (4:39)
2. "Ava Adore" (4:25)
3. "Perfect" (3:29)
4. "Daphne Descends" (4:43)
5. "Once Upon a Time" (4:07)
6. "Tear" (5:52)
7. "Crestfallen" (3:56)
8. "Appels + Oranjes" (3:39)
9. "Pug" (4:48)
10. "The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete" (4:34)
11. "Annie-Dog" (3:39)
12. "Shame" (6:39)
13. "Behold! The Night Mare" (5:13)
14. "For Martha" (7:07)
15. "Blank Page" (4:50)

Additional reissue bonus discs

Disc 3 - In a State of Passage

1. "Blissed and Gone (Sadlands demo)" (4:17)
2. "Christmastime (Sadlands demo)" (3:27)
3. "My Mistake (Sadlands demo)" (4:51)
4. "Sparrow (Sadlands demo)" (2:55)
5. "Valentine (Sadlands demo)" (4:22)
6. "The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete (Sadlands demo)" (5:24)
7. "What If? (Streeterville demo)" (3:28)
8. "Chewing Gum (CRC demo)" (3:00)
9. "The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete (CRC demo)" (5:01)
10. "The Ethers Tragic (instrumental/2014 mix/CRC demo)" (2:49)
11. "The Guns of Love Disastrous (instrumental/2014 mix/CRC demo)" (2:04)
12. "Annie-Dog (take 10/CRC demo)" (3:25)
13. "Once in a While (2014 mix/CRC demo)" (3:34)
14. "Do You Close Your Eyes When You Kiss Me? (CRC demo)" (3:07)
15. "For Martha (take 1/CRC demo)" (7:20)
16. "My Mistake (take 1/CRC demo)" (4:00)
17. "Blissed and Gone (CRC demo)" (3:30)
18. "For Martha (take 2/instrumental/CRC demo)" (5:40)

Disc 4 - Chalices, Palaces, and Deep Pools

1. "For Martha (symphonic snippet/instrumental)" (2:40)
2. "Crestfallen (Matt Walker reimagined/2014)" (3:39)
3. "To Sheila (early banjo version)" (4:25)
4. "Ava Adore (Puffy Combs remix 1998)" (4:37)
5. "O Rio (instrumental/Sadlands demo)" (2:28)
6. "Waiting (Adore outtake)" (3:49)
7. "Once Upon a Time (Sadlands demo)" (4:21)
8. "Eye (2014 mix/from the 'Lost Highway' soundtrack)" (4:55)
9. "Saturnine (for piano and voice)" (3:47)
10. "Cash Car Star (Matt Walker reimagined/2014)" (4:01)
11. "Pug (Matt Walker reimagined/2014)" (4:35)
12. "Perfect (no strings version)" (3:24)
13. "It's Alright (instrumental/Adore outtake)" (4:21)
14. "Czarina (take 1/Adore outtake)" (3:57)
15. "Indecision (Sadlands demo)" (2:43)
16. "Blank Page (early version)" (4:58)

Disc 5 - Malice, Callous, and Fools

1. "Let Me Give the World to You (Adore outtake)" ^note  This version produced by Rick Rubin, was later heavily reworked for Machina II (4:20)
2. "Tear (from digital transfer)" (5:53)
3. "Cross (Adore outtake)" (4:54)
4. "Because You Are (Adore B-Side)" (3:51)
5. "Jersey Shore (Sadlands demo)" (3:41)
6. "Shame (take 1)" (4:55)
7. "Summer (instrumental/Adore outtake)" (3:09)
8. "Blissed and Gone (drone version)" (5:11)
9. "Heaven (instrumental/Sadlands demo)" (4:03)
10. "Daphne Descends (Matt Walker reimagined/2014)" (5:11)
11. "Saturnine (Matt Walker Reimagined/2014)" (3:58)
12. "Behold! The Night Mare (alternate vocal)" (4:59)
13. "Perfect (acoustic demo/Adore outtake)" (3:19)
14. "Do You Close Your Eyes? (Adore outtake)" (4:23)
15. "The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning" (5:00)

Disc 6 - Kissed Alive Too

1. "Ava Adore (live/Sao Paulo session)" (4:47)
2. "Daphne Descends (live/Sao Paulo Session)" (4:28)
3. "The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete (live/Sao Paulo Session)" (4:42)
4. "Tear (live/Sao Paulo session)" (7:01)
5. "Shame (live with Mancow/chicago)" (4:19)
6. "Blank Page (live with Mancow/Chicago)" (7:52)
7. "To Sheila (live/Nashville/Ryman Auditorium)" (7:17)
8. "Money (That's What I Want) (live/Los Angeles/Dodger Stadium)" (3:31)
9. "X.Y.U. Medley (live/Los Angeles/Dodger Stadium)" (11:20)^note The songs included are "Never Say Never" (a Romeo Void cover), "The Ethers Tragic", "Where Boys Fear to Tread", and "X.Y.U."
10. "Transmission (live/Chicago/rehearsal)" (12:52)

DVD - Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA, August 4, 1998

1. "Intro" (1:00)
2. "To Sheila" (7:11)
3. "Behold! The Night Mare" (5:16)
4. "Pug" (5:06)
5. "Crestfallen" (4:30)
6. "Ava Adore" (5:41)
7. "Tear" (9:59)
8. "Annie-Dog" (4:27)
9. "Perfect" (3:35)
10. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" (10:15)
11. "Tonight, Tonight" (4:19)
12. "Once Upon a Time" (4:37)
13. "The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete" (10:20)
14. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" (5:30)
15. "Shame" (9:17)
16. "For Martha" (8:25)
17. "Blank Page" (9:48)
18. "Transmission" (25:52)

Personnel:

• Billy Corgan: vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards
• James Iha: vocals, guitar
• D'arcy Wretzky: bass guitar
• Matt Walker, Matt Cameron, Joey Waronker: drums
• Dennis & Jimmy Flemion: vocals

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The Tropes of Dusty and Pistol Pete:

• Album Closure: The album ends with "17", a 17-second piano instrumental that according to the liner notes is supposed to provide space for breathing and reflection.
• Album Title Drop: "Ava Adore", of course. Which is the only half of the title that appears.
• Cover Version: None on the album proper, but the bonus discs include multiple covers of Joy Division's "Transmission", taken to several times its original length, as well as Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)" (probably better known in The Beatles' version, though). The "X.Y.U. Medley" on disc 6 also features a partial cover of new wave band Romeo Void's song "Never Say Never".
• Darker and Edgier: Zig-Zagged. When taken as a whole, it's much, much more subdued musically than the band's previous work (and, for that matter, anything they did afterward). However, from an emotional and lyrical standpoint, it's definitely much darker overall, owing in part to Corgan's Creator Breakdown while it was being made.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The album art. The vinyl edition and the reissue avert this, though; the cover artwork for both versions (which is very similar, though not completely identical) has a lot of red.
• Epic Rocking: "For Martha" is 8:17 in the stereo mix (still 7:07 in the mono mix). "Shame" is 6:41, and "Tear" nearly qualifies at 5:54. The bonus material on the box set often falls into this, too:
  • "For Martha (take 1/CRC demo)" (7:20); "Tear (live/Sao Paulo session)" (7:01), "Blank Page (live with Mancow/Chicago)" (7:52), "To Sheila (live/Nashville/Ryman Auditorium)" (7:17), "X.Y.U. Medley (live/Los Angeles/Dodger Stadium)" (11:20), "Transmission (live/Chicago/rehearsal)" (12:52), and on the DVD, "To Sheila" (7:11), "Tear" (9:59), "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" (10:15), "The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete" (10:20), "Shame" (9:17), "For Martha" (8:25), "Blank Page" (9:48), and, taking the cake by far, "Transmission", at... *drumroll* 25:52.
• Gaia's Lament: Discussed briefly in "Appels + Oranjes".
  What if the sun refused to shine?
  What if the clouds refused to rain?
  What if the wind refused to blow?
  What if the seas refused to wave?
  What if the world refused to turn?
  What if the stars would hesitate?
• Grief Song: "For Martha" and "Once Upon a Time" directly reference Corgan's mother. Several other songs, such as "Tear", also qualify.
• Inherited Illiteracy Title: "Appels + Oranjes"
• Loudness War: Unfortunately, this affected the reissue pretty badly, especially the bonus material (the album itself is DR8 with a tolerable amount of clipping, while the bonus material tends to be around DR5 with a lot of clipping). Strangely, it's not much of a problem on the live DVD, which instead has the problem of having its audio track encoded as 192kbps AC3, meaning that frequencies above 16 kHz are cut off.
• Meaningless Meaningful Words: As beautiful and tearjerking as "To Sheila" is, looking at the lyrics on their own reveals that it essentially sounds like Corgan put together lots of words that sounded nice.
  Twilight fades
  Through blistered Avalon
  The sky’s cruel torch
  On aching Autobahn
• Miniscule Rocking: "17" is a seventeen-second piano instrumental (excerpted from "Blissed and Gone") with No Ending.
• Non-Indicative Name: Most versions of "17" aren't actually seventeen seconds long due to silence being added during mixing/mastering, but they were supposed to be. Interestingly, the track actually does mean something on the Japanese version, it's the 17th track. (The Japanese version includes the B-Side from Ava Adore, "Once In A While")
• Obligatory Bondage Song: Possible interpretations of "Pug" and "Annie-Dog". They take drastically different views of the subject, and they're practically on opposite sides of the spectrum; "Pug" is on the Safe, Sane, and Consensual side while "Annie-Dog" is on the Bondage Is Bad side.
• Obsession Song: "Ava Adore" is certainly much darker than a simple declaration of love.
• The Oner: The music video for "Ava Adore" was shot as one long take, notably using both slow and fast motion while the camera appears to be at a consistent speed. This was reportedly quite a bear to pull off, with the required calculations for the speed changes causing massive delays that almost convinced the band to call off the video altogether.
• One-Woman Song: "To Sheila", "For Martha".
• One-Word Title: "Adore", "Perfect", "Pug", "Tear", "Shame", "17".
• Pun-Based Title: The album's title is a pun on "a door", as a reference to being a New Sound Album. Nearly nobody got this until Corgan explained it.
• Record Producer: Billy Corgan, Flood, Brad Wood.
• Rearrange the Song: When performed live, the songs from this album tended to be a lot more guitar-based. In other words, they sounded a lot more like people expected Smashing Pumpkins songs to sound. One wonders if the album would have sold better if the live arrangements had been used on the album.
• Shout-Out: "Appels + Oranjes" is an intentionally misspelled shout out to the obscure Pink Floyd song "Apples and Oranges".

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