Smashing Pumpkins announced on social media that the band started recording sessions for their next studio album. According to the post on Instagram, the album will have 33 songs and will serve as a sequel to 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina.
The group also revealed that they had completed lyrics and the music for all 33 tracks.
The album was confirmed back in late 2020 when frontman Billy Corgan described the projects as “rock opera.”
“We feel like in many ways this completes the circle on everything we started and weren’t able to finish at that time, so we’re very excited about [it],” he said in a YouTube video at the time.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was released as a double LP and served as Smashing Pumpkins’ third studio effort. The release debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200 at no. 1 while also being receiving critical acclaim from the critics. It got the group seven nominations at the 39th Grammys and a Grammy Award in Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal category for “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.”
Machina, on the other hand, wasn’t as successful and was met with just favorable reviews and modest commercial success. Despite this, the album, which marked the return of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin to the group, has somewhat of a cult status among the Smashing Pumpkins fans.
