Siamese Dream is a huge album. I think everyone knows that, but sometimes it's worth restating these important facts. Each Pumpkins album hit up a slightly different niche, but Siamese Dream is the one that everyone agrees is one of the most important albums of the 90's. I've always had a strange relationship with it, because I came to the Pumpkins as a Mellon Collie fan and I couldn't understand how people could consider Siamese Dream better - how could they possibly not love the epic that was Mellon Collie? But, in a lot of ways, Mellon Collie was an album you had to love as a teenager to really love, but Siamese Dream was for everyone. That's how I've always seen it anyway.
Very nearly half of my life has passed since I first heard Mellon Collie and Siamese Dream. I still love them both, but they've changed over the years; MCIS remains one of my all-time favourite albums, but Siamese Dream is the one I play more often. Maybe it's because it's shorter, or perhaps it's more instant - can you think of an album with a stronger opening three songs than Cherub Rock, Quiet and Today? Those first two alone are quite something then Today appears. Genius. And it just stays strong - Hummer, Rocket, Disarm, Soma and that's just the first record.
I can't really remember the first time I listened to Siamese Dream (I remember the first time I listened to MCIS vividly). I do remember getting less out of it on those first few listens. I knew the singles and a lot of the rest wasn't quite what I hoped. I was 16 and wanted excess and drama like on Mellon Collie. Of course, I wouldn't change a moment on it; it's the Pumpkins album no one can judge you for liking in your thirties.
I found this copy in FM Music in Southampton, a small independent record shop in a fairly shitty shopping centre at the far end of town. It was a year and a half since I'd bought the cd and knew it would be a great album to have on vinyl. The fact it was on double orange, slightly marbled vinyl only drew me in further. At the time, £14 was a lot for an album, but I was a huge Pumpkins fan and knew I'd always feel pleased to have it in the collection, which I do.
I've probably not listened to the vinyl itself very many times. I've played the cd to death (and since bought the reissue boxset) so I rarely needed to. It does sound nice and it's kinda strange having the three natural breaks that you don't get on cd. It's quite nice sometimes to take that pause and reflect on how brilliant the three or four songs you just heard were for a moment.
Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 13
Cost: £14 new
Bought: FM Music, Southampton
When: 03/05/03
Colour: Orange
Etching: none
mp3s: no
