Not all the paintings in my house art of people or things. Some are pretty abstract and I still like them. I may like then more in certain mood just because they are abstract.

Inane lyrics suit the summer. If I get 3 months rotation from the album I'll be happy with the $10 it cost. If the rockers come on my ipod while snowboarding, I think I'll be more than happy. In general, Beach Boys, Van Halen and few other fun bands gets played more in the summer. Knocking a good album because of inane lyrics is like knocking a pretty girl with one breast larger than the other. As my buddy says "Just focus on the better one." There's enough to focus on with this record to not worry about the lyrics.

Abstract vs. representational isn't a great analogy, since great art is produced in both areas. They just have different criteria by which to be judged.

well I'd dispute that it's a good album anyway. Terrible lyrics, somewhat featureless songs, awful vocals, and a nice enough guitar sound that is repetitious 3 songs in when there are still 10 to go

Not on the half of the album I listened to there wasn't--it pretty much just sounded like mechanized, tuneless alterna-sludge to me.

Anyway, I'm suspicious of this idea that lyrics don't matter. Obviously the degree to which any one person cares about them will vary, but if a song is to feature "writing" of some kind, it hardly seems unreasonable that someone might be put off if the writing is bad, even under the most optimal of barometric conditions. Lyrics are as much a part of a song as anything, and therefore equally fair game.

True.
But you can enjoy a good song with bad lyrics.

No, that's completely impossible.

The litmus test for that theory would be PJ. And the songs I find to have the worst lyrics just fail for me, overall. I can say that I enjoy some of them 'musically', but that's it.

I'm with you as far as certain types of music sounding good during certain times of the year. I listen to a ton of 80s pop and rock songs during the summer but not at all during the other seasons. Nothing better than Prince when you are mowing the lawn.

You guys saying this album has no hooks are crazy. These are some of the best melodies he's written in 10 years. "The Celestials" is getting pretty good play on the local independent radio station where I'm at and overall the album seems to be well received, which it should be. This is the best thing they've done not only since the reboot, but probably since Mellon Collie. It feels like the Pumpkins again, and that counts for something.

one can think horrible things about this album and still not dispute that

The only song I'm getting tired of now is "Inkless"... just a generic, average song. The rest of the album I still enjoy.

Machina II and some of the unreleased Zwan songs. But otherwise, yeah, this is pretty good compared to what he's been putting out.

What's the fan consensus on Machina II? I just heard it for the first time a few months ago and thought it was dreadful.

The general fan consensus is that it's great. The production isn't great but there are some great songs in there like "Vanity", "Let Me Give the World to You", "Dross", "Speed Kills" and "Cash Car Star". I'm really looking forward to the Machina reissue. Billy's going to remaster the album and put Machina / Machina II together to create his original intended double album.

matt, when are you going to do something about that profile pic?

I'm over this album already. It's kinda boring.

In fact, it's convinced me to sell all my SP albums from Adore on. I've had Adore for over a decade and I've listened to it all of 3 times. I got this stuff digitally ... No sense in holding onto albums that I don't really like.

I like how it starts with the first three tracks, but it begins to fade sort of quickly for me. Siamese, Pisces, and Mellon Collie were the pinnacle of Billy's abilities. He can still crank out records, but his talent has pretty much peaked.

I kinda hate it...there are some good songs on int but the mix is awful...the same with machina , i don`t think i listened to that one more than one time.
Even try try try is better in Machina 2.

The songs on Machina II are completely forgettable. Back in the early '90's their distortion freakouts had a mystery and a catharsis to them; post-1996 or so, their rock songs have just been big indiscriminate walls of metallic glitter. It's 1970's glam rock without the sense of humor.