I got very into The Smashing Pumpkins during my college years.

I also had copies of Oceania and Monuments. Oceania was actually not half bad. Solid 6.5/10. Monuments just had "Being Beige" and "One and All." It's more of a 4. I never listened to the rest of it. I lost them at some point. No idea where they could have gone. I've moved house like a half dozen times since '14 so they probably got lost in the move.

Gish is an 8, Siamese Dream is a 9.5, Mellon Collie is a 9, Adore is an 8 (criminally underrated, check it out if you want to get into some of Billy Corgan's lesser known work). Machina is ok. About a 4 for me. "The Everlasting Gaze" is a real banger, but don't get your hopes up that the rest of the album keeps it up. "Try, Try, Try" and "This Time" are good songs and the only other ones of note to me. The rest of it I can skip. Pisces Iscariot is an 8 for me. It's got their "Landslide" cover and "Stella" absolutely slaps, but the whole thing is good.

I've also got Machina II, but you'll never find a physical copy. I just have FLACs. You can download it for free (which I recommend). The band rushed making it as they were about to break up. As far as I know, once the songs were recorded and everyone went their separate ways, pressings were sent to various radio stations. Perhaps as a way to get the music out there. Perhaps for preservation's sake. But some of them did create digital reproductions of the album and it's available for free digital download in various formats. Machina and Machina II were supposed to mesh together as an overarching concept album, but the label wasn't going to allow another double album like Mellon Collie after the flop Adore was. I'm actually okay with that because I think the low quality production of Machina II makes it a significantly better album. "Slow Dawn," "Vanity," "Satur9," "Try (Version 1)," "Glass," ""Cash Car Star," "Dross," "Real Love," "Go," "Let Me Give The World To You," and "White Spyder" are all great songs. "Innosense" is also pretty good. In short, Machina II is filled with some great deep cuts that not many people have really heard about.

I haven't checked out any of Billy's work past Monuments. I've heard Ogilala isn't bad. My sister really likes their new album Atum, but I'm not too big on it.

Anyway, if you've made it this far, go listen to Glynis. The song was written around the Gish/Siamese Dream era about a Chicago-area bassist Glynis Johnson who died in '92 of AIDS complications. It was written for the 1993 album No Alternative, which aimed to raise awareness of and benefit AIDS relief.

Also, check out Drown. It's just an awesome 8½ minute romp.

Came back to add: I have the Zwan album too.

I hear this one was pretty divisive. I liked it. "Lyric" is good. "El Sol" is a fun one. I'm not big on the first part of "Jesus, I/Mary Star of the Sea" so I imported it to Audacity and split the song into its two disctinct parts. "Mary Star of the Sea" features some some of Jimmy's best drumming since Geek USA. I haven't spun this one up in years til now.