The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness was the most significant and influential record for me growing up as a wayward youth. To this day, it is still my favorite. I actually purchased a new record player purely for the reason of buying this MCIS reissue. The quality of the recording is outstanding, and I absolutely vouch for this as the best record of all time.

First thing that is on everyone's mind, the order of songs is that of the CD, not the original 1995 UK vinyl. In a way, this disappoints me as I was hoping to hear it in the new order. Infinte Sadness and Tonite (Reprise) are not included.

This slipcase is absolutely gorgeous! The artwork featured on the case is the artwork shown in the product thumbnail. The surface is a nice gloss, with the art itself being raised slightly to give it a texture. It is very well made, and each record has it's own sleeve. On one side of the sleeve is a pattern of the MCIS dingbats and song listing, the other side has a large version of some of the original MCIS booklet artwork. Newly packaged, each vinyl comes packed in a lined paper sleeve. Additionally packaged are smaller sleeves within the sleeves, all of which have a monotone pattern akin to the original MCIS artwork. The assumption is you can remove the paper sleeves and house them in the rigid cardboard sleeves that have the artwork. (See image)

There are two books that accompany the music. One is basically a large version of the MCIS lyric sheet from the CD version. However, it is in a different typeface. A minor change. The woodcut artwork remains the same. The second booklet is an all new booklet that features a small recent article written by David Wild in which Billy talks about MCIS and the significance it had on him and the band, and where it lies as far as the "best time" in the history of Smashing Pumpkins. Also in this booklet are notes by Billy on each song and how it evolved, the meaning, what he thinks of it, which is incredible insight much of which has not been revealed until now! Amazing content! Though it seems as if the booklety was designed fore the CD version, as the songs are divided between the classic "Dawn to Dusk" and "Twilight to Starlight" There are also concept sketches for much of the MCIS artwork, done by Billy. Much of this eventually evolved into the John Craig collages that MCIS is well known for. The only thing that drives me crazy about this book is that they include some stills from some of the music videos (usually in the columns) but they are shown letterboxed (black bars on each side) WHY would the person doing the layout let this happen? I understand that the change to widescreen changes the aspect ratio, but black bars could have very easily been removed and would make the appearance of these stills more appealing. However. Good news guys, there's a blown up version of the band with D'arcy holding the carrot!

This is definitely a collectors item. MCIS being my favorite, I had to have it. And it is absolutely worth it.

Edit: To address the issue of the sound quality, it was not until I played it back and listened closely that I noticed some "sonic artifacts" in parts of the recording, namely Zero (certainly not audible "all the way through"). Hardly a distraction while listening to, and goes largely unnoticed. I listened to these records in their entirety and I feel as though the recording is of a good quality. It sounds the way vinyl should sound. I dunno how much different you'll find the CD version to be, but you might as well just download an mp3 or a FLAC if you're going for "digital flawlessness"

My windows cracked when I put on Bullet with Butterfly Wings. Just thunderous low end stuff. Never sounded better.