In reality this probably should have been a double album as Billy originally intended, which would have made the whole Machina to the nth degree experience work out better over all. That said, I find myself wishing that some of the alternate versions saved for the EP's of the second would have appeared on the first. I really prefer Machina II's versions of "Heavy Metal Machines", "Try, Try, Try", and "Blue Skies."

On the other hand, the first four tracks are breathtakingly good. In my opinion they represent some of the best Pumpkin work ever. It's worth having for them alone.

Good things come to those who wait:

http://www.nachtkabarett.com/SmashingPumpkins

"The Smashing Pumpkins: Machina, Alchemy & The Occult - The encyclopedic, novel-length mini-site currently in production".

The first incarnation will launch in a couple months.

- Brad Jaeger of The Nachtkabarett

overblown.
guitars that dont sound like guitars.

maybe it was supposed to be a double album.

maybe it should have been released as 3.

How can there be such greatness as the Everlasting Gaze and Raindrops
and then such mis-steps as the sacred+profane and the imploding voice.

When it was called Virex it was a scorcher, when speed kills was played with more speed it rocked... sometimes billy is his own worst enemy. Of the 5 different versions of blue skies bring tears that I have on my mac, the one on this album is the worst. Nice try, but you were aiming too high...

the fans didn't care... the record company was against you...
and basically you went down with the ship. Mighty Machina!

at first i gave this album 2/5. on my new rating i decided to give it 4/5. it is a fantastic album. i have no idea what i was thinking before but i mean, it's great, i deleted my old post because i was too embarrassed to see the horrible rating on here. my favourite track has to be "Blue Skies Bring Tears".

For me machina is my favorite albulm by far.People where stuck on the siamese dream an MCIS that they didnt realize that it was time for a change musically and artistically.Yeah adore didnt do good so what, all they did was set this albulm up for failiure.Machina had songs and lyrics that were so deep with emotion that anyone including myself could relate to.It wassn't just billy yelling and ripping up guitar solos,this albulm had meaning because it was "suppose" to be there farewell gift and it was a very dark time for them.Machina started out hard with "everlasting gaze" and "stand inside your love" but the true stregnth fo this albulm were songs like "wound", "the sacred and profane", and my personal favorite pumpkins song "this time".From start to finish every song in this cd had a sound that could capture what the true meaning of growth and love really meant.Undoubtably there best albulm without question and if machina 2 would've been realeasd together (as it should have been) this albulm would be greater than it already is.

I get irritated when people say that MACHINA was a bad album. This was the last released album before they broke up in 2000. Billy inteded this to be a dual CD but couldn't because of Adore's failure. Most of the CD is great. The highlights are "Everlasting Gaze", "Stand Inside Your Love", and "Wound". The CD is great, but it isn't perfect. There are a couple of uneven songs but SP fans should still love this album. This was often singeled out with the album "Adore". They both got poor reviews. But considering all the emotion that went into these albums, you should realize how dark these times were. Such as Billy's mom's death and the firing of Jimmy Chamberlain. Overall, it's a damn good album.

When I originally heard this album in 2000 I really didn't enjoy it very much. The same is true of Adore. Yet after avoiding both for the last seven years I find myself really falling in love with most of the tracks on both those albums, and I'm listening to them even more than MCIS or Siamese Dream. Tastes change with time I guess.

i'm a big fan of those two albums so when adore came out, i was one of those who were surprised not exactly in a good way, but since there was a context on it, i looked at the beauty of that album in its own merits and i let it pass. now come machina...well jimmy's back and i guess billy's issues won't haunt him forever so i kinda expected something in the same light of siamese dream or MCIS, but no. it wasn't, unfortunately. faint traces are there but nothing will give you the impression that this is the band which came out with disarm, or mayonnaise, or spaceboy, or BWBW, or 1979. the theme is different (which is a good thing) but so was the style (a not so good thing). don't get me wrong though, i don't want a stagnant SP. but the sound is different and that turned me off. it's like walking up one day and your lover started acting like a different person. well technically she's the same person, but she's no longer the person that you adore. and that will kill things. (it's not the most brilliant analogy, i know, but i hope it served its purpose)

that said, i don't necessarily dismiss the beauty of this album. judging by its OWN merits, i'd say this is a good album. not great, just good. the everlasting gaze is a good song. it has some of those faint traces which i spoke of earlier. raindrops + sunshowers is acrually good. and even better when played at max volume in a surround sound system. stand inside your love was beautifully written. the perfect love song (well next to ava adore). i of the mourning could actually pass for a good pop song in my opinion, but not necessarily as a SP song (i mean that of the siamese dream/MCIS). the sacred and profane is okay i guess. try, try, try is the same as i of the mourning and a little cheesey if you ask me. as for heavy metal machine, i prefer the machina II version. this time, ughh...i don't know what to make of it. an introduction to zwan perhaps or a reaffirmation that the old sp is gone (the first one was the whole adore album). the imploding voice has some nice riffs. glass and the ghost children and wound are also good songs. the crying tree of mercury can be lagging in a good way and i like it. with every light kinda reminds me of lily from MCIS. sometimes i think squirrels and birds will come to me if i play it loud in the park. don't get me wrong, it's a nice song, you just have to pick the right mood to play it or else you'll just end up being pissed. for blue skies bring tears, i like its electrique version in machina II better, oh and because "electrique" is fun to say. age of innocence has a very catchy sound and the bass is just right.

all in all, i think this is a good album and not their best (that of which is reserved to siamese dream, MCIS, and gish as of yet)

So being younger I've only been into this band the past few years and believe it or not I just listened to this album all the way thrugh for the first time. I was under the impression that Zeitgeist was way better than this because I had only listened to Machina in little bits at a time. However, uon listening to this all the way through i declare his to be my second favorite Pumpkins album (just behing Mellon, now ahead of Adore). Pure beauty and art.

Also, Wound and With Every Light are so incredible I just can't even stand it.

The music on 'Machina' is probably my favorite throughout all of TSP's CDs. 'Machina B-Side', has allot of amazing songs done in acoustic. My faves would have to be, Age of Innocence, The Crying Tree Of Mercury (Piano & Vocal), The Everlasting Gaze, Stand Inside Your Love (acoustic) and Soot & Stars. The band has soooo many amazing songs, sound and lyric wise in all of their CDs.. they are just an awesome band.

Sometimes the best art is lambasted at the time of it's release, and it's not until many years later that the true impact of the work is felt. This album may not make all the magazines' "Greatest of All-Time" lists like Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie, but I believe this to be Corgan's(and the Pumpkins') creative peak thus far, and will hopefully be recognized as such in the near future.

Corgan once said, at the completion of the Mellon Collie tour, that he'd pushed rock music as far as it could go, which is why he decided to throw out the rulebook and take a much more stripped-down approach with their next album, Adore. With Machina, he combines elements of this new approach with the intensity of the patented Pumpkins sound we all know and love. This provides the album with such a unique sound, covering the whole spectrum of human emotion, all the while pushing the very notion of rock even father. The scope and magnitude of this album cannot be overstated, in my opinion.

Some consider the [over]production of this album to be it's one glaring weakness, but I disagree. Corgan told Flood during the recording process that he wanted certain songs to sound like "blood was dripping from the walls," and I think this was accomplished. There is so much going on within the white noise in the background of each song, that it takes several listens before the album totally seeps in and the true impact of the album is realized and felt. It truly is a rock and roll symphony, and the perfect example of the Pumpkins ability to be loud, quiet, happy, sad, heavy, mellow, tripped-out, devastating, face-melting, gut-wrenching.....all at the same time.

Corgan has stated that the album should be like a mirror that you hold up to yourself. It relects your emotions back to you, like any great work of art, so that it means something different to each person listening.(This is why the main character's name is Glass, I believe. He's a reflection of all of us. Also note that the disc itself appears to be a reflection of you, the person holding it). So you can interpret the album any way you like; as a rock opera, a fond farewell, or just 15 songs of love and despair that you just happen to relate to. It always changes for me. That's the beauty of the album. Depending on where one's at in life, the album takes on different meanings. The many layers of this album continue to unfold each time I listen to it. It truly is a reflection of yourself.

I'm aware enough to know that Machina has not been adored by everyone, but I actually think its an amazing record. Not in the sense of it being "rock and roll" or "heavy" but because it is probably one of the most individual and unique albums I have EVER heard.

The concept itself is incredible. I dont know how many average joe's could've thought up such a creative theme. Most impressive ^_^ I also like how Billy puts his reletionship with Yelena Yemchuck into the album's theme; its not like other albums where the composer writes one "real-life" song, puts it in the concept album, and haves it stick out like a sore thumb. I admire how "Stand Inside Your Love" flows in with the surrounding material.

Songs like "Everlasting Gaze" and "Heavy Metal Machine" offer the l;istener a taste of the heavy, pulsing rock that most of us crave, but never once did I get the impression that they didnt fit on the record.

Tracks like "Wound" and "The Sacred and Profane" have my respect in the sense that they dont sound like any particular thing I've heard from the Pumpkins. They're always trying something new.

Not once did I hear a radio-friendly pop single ^_^

I've heard claims that Machina was too "Prog-Metal" but I think the band was being progressive with thier music (as always!) and I didnt take that comment as an insult.

The only letdown to me is the superficial disappointment that Zero dies in the end (read the scripture in the liner notes if you dont know what I'm talking about).

R.I.P. Zero

Not sure if anyone else agrees but i think this album is massively underrated at time when it was easier to define who the real pumpkins fans out there were. After Mellon Collie alot of people started to dislike the change in style the pumpkins where going through. I think this album is an awesome back up to adore and should gain more recognition.

In my opinion, this is their best album. This isn't just music, it's art.

i remember being 9 or 10 and hearing a guy from my class talking about the smashing pumpkins and their new song, after that i saw "the everlasting gaze" on total request on "good old mtv" and that bass/guitar stood forever inside my brain, hidden, now after listenning to the album i cant say if its the best or the worst, but the melody, the guitars drums wow, i dont think that any band could do what they did, so [bad word removed]ing emotion and rock together in the year that music died, as james died for sp :´(