i'm going to back off, partly because it's not worth it, and partly because it's not really getting under my skin.
i guess we're all used to this idea of "relating" to lyrics. that's never really been how i've ever looked at this; i've never really been looking for a singer that wants to speak directly to me, or something. i guess i'm just not a hipster, and i guess this just isn't a hipster band.
rather, i'm used to singers that tell stories (like, concept records) or try to work people up politically (punk singers) or just want to say something about how they see the world. there's a few singers - stipe is one. another is tim smith, from cardiacs. - that i may feel some level of relation to. corgan's never really been in that group, anyways; he's always been in more of the "speaking from a distance" category, somebody i've always seen the wisdom in not taking entirely seriously. even the lyrical tracks i really like - ruby is one - aren't really from a point of relation, but more from a point of agreement; he's making an argument, and i'm nodding along, abstractly. there's a subtle but key difference - it's in the realm of ideas, not the realm of the personal. love is suicide - he's right. but, that's an idea, it's not a feeling.
and, at this point, because he's been a character in my own story arc for so long, he sort of has earned the right to his independent opinion. and, i don't feel any particular urge to agree with him in order to listen to him - i can let him tell his story from his perspective, and take it into consideration and still hold to my own perspectives. he's just some guy, right?
is that tolerance? well, it only works because i've been listening to pumpkins records for so long, i think, and have kind of grown to accept we have a lot of very different perspectives. i may react differently to an unknown artist, i may not want to give them the time of day, or may get flustered and turn it off. but, i'm expecting a certain thing from corgan, and i'd be disingenuous to pretend i'm shocked or surprised by what i'm hearing. maybe it's even the draw, at this point. maybe that's the character he's playing, the disappointment, the foil, in the context of my own existence.
that said, there's some tracks that fall into that old point of abstract agreement, as well. for all corgan's irritating libertarian capitalism and theological wokeness, he's still a romantic fatalist, a pseudo-existentialist, a muted nihilist and an interesting observationalist.
he ends the record by reminding us that we're all fools, and that it's the fools that rule, in the end. and, while it's a trite comment, and it's perhaps worthy of some further extrapolation, it's the kind of observational statement i like in my pumpkins.
so, maybe there's a few topics that i'd rather not hear him sing about, but that's almost his role in my life, at this point. and, i'll take the punishment, until i get bored with it. i guess...
i don't have the kind of deconstruction i thought i might; the source to react to just isn't there. it's more a shrug than a scour.