By all reports, Siamese Dream was an absolute nightmare to make. The Smashing Pumpkins themselves were a mess -- frontman/guitarist Billy Corgan was toying with suicide, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin had a serious heroin problem and guitarist James Iha conveniently broke up with bassist D'Arcy Wretzky just before recording sessions began -- but Corgan and producer Butch Vig were holding the new album to such high standards that record-label deadlines kept whizzing past and studio fees wound up going some $250,000 over budget.

The finished product was far from a disaster, though. The Pumpkins' bruising, slightly psychedelic brand of supercharged guitar rock sounded towering and crystalline and totally amazing and completely unlike most of the other "alternative" rock going around during the grunge era. And the public was on board with the salivating music press, turning singles like "Today," "Cherub Rock" and "Disarm" into outlier pop hits and pushing Siamese Dream to quadruple-platinum status in the U.S. and Canada. The Smashing Pumpkins themselves would continue to be a fractious mess for some time to come, but at least now they were proper rock stars. 

TRACKLISTING:

1. Cherub Rock
2. Quiet
3. Today
4. Hummer
5. Rocket
6. Disarm
7. Soma
8. Geek U.S.A.
9. Mayonaise
10. Spaceboy
11. Silverf**k
12. Sweet Sweet
13. Luna