Monuments to an Elegy is the ninth studio album by The Smashing Pumpkins, released on December 9, 2014 through Martha’s Music. Band leader Billy Corgan noted that like the band’s previous release, Oceania, the album is part of the 34-track music project, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. It turned out to be the last part of the series due to cancellation of the project in 2018. Corgan and guitarist Jeff Schroeder recorded the album as a duo, with Mötley Crüe‘s Tommy Lee adding drum parts. This was the last album before the return of original guitarist James Iha and drummer Chamberlin in 2018.
The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, but sold poorly compared to the band’s previous albums, peaking at number 33 in the U.S. and number 59 in the U.K., thus making it (at the time) their lowest charting album in both regions since their debut, Gish (1991).
On March 25, 2014, the band announced that they had signed a record deal with record label BMG. The band’s next two albums would be part of the deal: Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night.
On April 29, The Smashing Pumpkins‘ frontman Billy Corgan stated that the band had chosen the top songs for the album, and that they would be spending the following three days on drum tracking, vocal arrangements, lyrics and tweaking of the songs. Corgan described the album’s planned sound as being “guitars, guitars, guitars, and more guitars; but more so on the epic side of things than say, grossly metallic.”
On May 7, it was announced that Tommy Lee, founding member of Mötley Crüe, would be playing drums on all nine of the album’s tracks. According to Corgan, Jeff Schroeder was the only person apart from himself officially in the Smashing Pumpkins, and that Mike Byrne and Nicole Fiorentino were no longer working with the group in any capacity.
On July 21, Billy Corgan indicated that recording on Monuments to an Elegy had finished. Mixing for the album commenced on August 18. The album’s final release date was announced as December 9.
Tracklist:
- Tiberius
- Being Beige
- Anaise!
- One and All (We Are)
- Run2me
- Drum + Fife
- Monuments
- Dorian
- Anti-Hero
The Smashing Pumpkins
Billy Corgan: vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards and synthesizers
Jeff Schroeder: guitar
Additional musicians
Tommy Lee: drums
Sstaria (Sheri Shaw): backing vocals on “Anaise!”
Production
David Bottrill: mixing
Nikola Dokic: 2nd Engineer
Smiley Sean: 2nd Engineer
Jonathan DeRing: Assistant Engineer
Howie Weinberg: mastering
Sam Wiewel: 2nd Engineer
Howard Willing: production
