Rather shockingly, I think I may have never actually played this record until now. I bought it shortly before going to Australia and I'd owned the cd for years, so there's a good chance it's never graced my turntable until now. One of my reasons for writing this blog was so that I wouldn't neglect my vinyl, and it's safe to say that's working here.
Adore was the last of the proper Pumpkins albums that I bought on cd (I finally picked up Pisces Iscariot a short while afterwards) and the last that I bought on vinyl too (on a very successful record shopping trip to Brighton). I like it, but it gets a bad rep and it's hard not to think about that, or compare it to the other albums. It may not be the Pumpkins's finest work, but it's not a bad album by any stretch, it just stands out against all the other albums so much. Tear was always my favourite song, but the singles Ava Adore and Perfect were pretty good too. I miss the traditional Pumpkins sound from the songs though. Like most people in their twenties who loved the Pumpkins as a teenager, if I need my fix of Pumpkins (they're a hard band to go cold-turkey from) I usually opt for Siamese Dream, even though I was more of a Mellon Collie fan before. I suppose none of the things I really love about the Pumpkins are here. Playing it now, the lengthy For Martha stands out better than it used to. I'm a big fan of that song today.
One of the coolest things about the vinyl version of Adore is that the cover contains about twice as much of the picture as the cd does; whereas before it looked like a woman in a dress against a strange background (in black and white), you see that it's in fact a huge red flower and her dress forms some of the petals. Studying the two, you can see that they're actually different pictures from, presumably, the same shoot (note the different position of the arms). I have no idea why they decided on the smaller one for the cd because this one looks great.
The worst thing about the vinyl version of Adore, however, is that it's a monaural record and basically sounds shit. It's amazing how little I notice how good stereo sounds, but this record makes me realise it. Maybe it sounds better with a mono needle/turntable (another reason I haven't played it more is that I was worried my stereo needle would damage the vinyl). It seems like a strange choice, given that this is the Pumpkins at their most experimental and with a sound that would probably benefit from stereo. Also missing is the final track on the cd 17 (along with the poem that accompanied it) which I always thought was a nice way to finish the album, despite being just 17 seconds of piano. The fourth side is blank, but with the markings of some concentric circles on the disc, but not actually etched in; one-sided records are often completely free of any markings so I'm not sure why these are here. Despite what I hoped, they're not 17 in any hidden format.
So a nice record for any Pumpkins fan, but one that's more for looking at rather than playing.
Format: double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 15
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Borderline, Brighton
When: 11/01/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
