The Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan has praised Taylor Swift and defended the length of her latest album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ – see what he had to say about the pop star below.
Speaking to the Irish Times, Corgan spoke about people complaining about artists releasing long albums – something he’s baffled by. It’s something he’s faced himself, with the Smashing Pumpkins’ latest album ‘ATUM’, which released in three parts with a total of 33 songs.
Corgan said, sympathising with Taylor and mentioning Sinéad O’Connor: “Now that Sinéad’s gone, would it be a bad thing if somebody turned up tomorrow and said, ‘Hey, I just found this tape, and there’s enough for 20 – or 30 or 50 – Sinéad songs.’ Would that be a bad thing?”
He then addressed Taylor Swift: “Taylor Swift is one of the most gifted pop artists of all time. How is it a bad thing that she’s releasing more music? I can’t follow that… You can go on Spotify and just skip it.”
Corgan then reflected on the criticism he’s faced for ‘ATUM’: “People complained about the length of my last album, ‘ATUM’. I thought, ‘Well, just go make your own playlist.’ Just listen to the record one time – rag over the six or 10 songs you like and make your own record. Why is this such a strange concept? Have some sense of proportionality. This hyperbolic thing – ‘They ruined Star Wars. My God, this is all too much for me to process’ – it’s all a bit childish.”
While ‘ATUM’ consisted 33 songs – 43 if you count the 10 additional exclusive songs that were made available on the record’s limited edition boxset – across three entries, Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ clocks in at 31 songs released in a single offering. She had initially the first 16 tracks when the album dropped before revealing just hours later that it was a double album and released an additional 15 songs. The album is now technically available on digital as a single release with all 31 songs.
‘ATUM’ scored a four-star review, with Damian Jones writing for NME: “As albums go, ‘ATUM’ is an ambitious body of work and does ask a lot of its audience. But there’s also plenty on here to please any diehard Pumpkins fan.”
Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets’ album scored a three-star review, with Laura Molloy writing for NME: “The pitfalls that mire her 11th studio album are all the more disappointing — she’s proven time and time again she can do better. To a Melbourne audience of her Eras Tour, Swift said that ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ came from a “need” to write. It’s just that maybe we didn’t need to hear it.”
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