Gish

I have been looking for this album for several months now and it has been way too expensive from other sources for me to justify purchasing a copy. The seller said it was a first release , but it was the remastered reissue on 180 gram vinyl and that was the copy that I wanted to purchase anyway. So I actually got the copy I wanted that is three times the price on other websites that specialize in vinyl pressing. This is a still sealed copy as well and other copies I’ve considered have been used copies. The vinyl market has exploded and I’m still waiting for it to drop like a rock. I have some albums that I have seen for sale on various sites for astronomical prices, but the economy can’t sustain these prices for long if the whole market crashes. I buy vinyl records for the same reason I bought them in the 80’s. It’s just a great format and I don’t think the Millennials and Gen Z are going to continue to buy vinyl records as much as they have been. First they need constant care, storage space is another issue, and then your stylus needs replacing more often than most of these newcomers realize. I have Tidal and access to just about anything I want to listen to, but I also like having a good copy of some stuff that is not available easily on vinyl. Now I’m starting to see cassettes in my local record store and I’m not going down that road again. They stretch out for one and it affects the sound quality. If they had steel tape that was basically like digital audio and High Resolution, I might consider the cassette tape as an option, but I was hoping that MQA would take off and I think Covid killed any chance of that happening. Yes it requires a decoder, but it sounds incredible compared to a compressed CD.

This review is in regards to the vinyl. Obviously, Smashing Pumpkins - Gish is an amazing album and you're not here to read reviews from an album that came out in 1991. The vinyl is also great. My only complaint is the picture that Amazon has of the album is for the 1991 pressing, but what they sell is the 2011 remaster. I bought this with the full realization that I would most likely get the 2011 remaster (with a silver-purple reflective album cover), so I wasn't entirely disappointed. I was hoping for the original, mostly because I wanted the album to have the original cover, for nostalgia. This was actually one of the very first tapes I ever purchased, in 1993 I saved my allowance and went to the local tape store to buy a Smashing Pumpkins tape. I listened to it until the tape stopped working, and I flipped through tape cover/book hundreds of times while listening to it (what else is an elementary school-aged boy going to do all day but obsess over music?). So, I was hoping for the original cover... the one with the red pearls around the outside, the colorized black and white photograph, and the textured blackish purple background... just to bring me back to my childhood for a moment. The music still manages to bring me back there though. The irony of buying a vinyl in 2014 because I listened to tapes in 1993 is not lost on me, but what can I say... that naive little boy grew up into an urban dude.

Smashing Pumpkins is great. This album is a delight! Delivery was great and packaging was in great shape.

A must have for any fam! Also came with downloadable files! I didn’t have to wait to enjoy my most loved cd!!

As is often the case with bands, Gish was their first and their best. Prior to the first release a band might actually have many songs already written and they may have been written many years prior to the first release. What is likely to happen is these songs have a chance to "marinate" and gradual improvements are made over time. When it is time to record the first release a band might actually have several disks worth of material so the "greatest hits" make the cut on the first disk. Subsequent releases use the material that may not have been as good and the other new songs have not had the chance to "marinate". Gish is simply amazing and I am not surprised that it was never equaled. The Pumpkins probably would have had to wait about 5 years until the next release before they had the material to equal Gish and a record company is not going to let that happen. Ground breaking when it came out and a sound that has been copied by many bands. Incredible depth and complexity. My recommendation to those new to the Pumpkins is buy Gish and the greatest hits even though some Gish songs are on the greatest hits. The fact is Gish should not be broken up but needs to be listened to in its entirety. Mesmerizing!

Toll

Delivery was spot on but was a little disappointed it wasn't bubble wrapped as I got a cracked cover upon opening package, thank goodness the CD is unaffected.

Trabajo de una calidad musical espectacular. Viene en jewel case, lo cual se agradece. El debut brillante e impecable de The Smashing Pumpkins; disco espectacular por su mezcla de rock psicodélico, grunge y metal progresivo. Un álbum completo, potente y con el sonido perfecto de las guitarras distorsionadas del grupo.

It sounded amazing when it first came out, the production value was through the roof for an "indie" album at a time when lo-fi grunge was the direction the world was heading. Now remastered, it just pounds even more. I do find however that some subtle nuances get lost or buried with remastered releases. Hard to put a finger on it, maybe it's just my old self now vs. the memory of listening to it back in the 90s. Of course there's also the element of different stereo systems now vs. then, everything is digital now. No one has the thundering 1000 watt stereo with 5 foot speakers and 20 band equalizers in their living rooms any more, lol. I digress. This album is and always will be a classic. It is so raw, yet so polished. You can really tell that Billy hadn't found his true songwriting footing yet, but the groundwork is there. The next two albums (3 if you include Pisces) would define the 90s sound and reach Mount Olympus imo. Music this daring and far reaching hasn't come close since. I get Melancholy thinking about it, pun intended.

オルタナティブの名盤です。 私はニルバーナの次に好きなバンドです。