CYR

If 2018’s <i>SHINY AND OH SO BRIGHT, VOL. 1</i> allowed a mostly reunited Smashing Pumpkins to rebuild their relationship as a band, then <i>CYR</i> is the result of their strengthened creative confidence—though maybe not in the way that you’d expect. Ever the playful antagonist, frontman Billy Corgan bucks the expectation that having drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and guitarist James Iha back long-term means a return to pummelling riffs and intricate art rock. Instead, the band make a sharp pivot towards synth-driven goth-pop. “The 20 songs was the end result of going super deep and trying to evolve with what we were capable of doing in the 21st century, and understanding that part of that was not relying on familiar things,” Corgan tells Apple Music about the double album. “I just went where my heart told me to go.”<br /> After he explored different strands of electronic music in 1998's <i>Adore</i> and his 2005 solo effort <i>The Future Embrace</i>, <i>CYR</i> isn't entirely out of character for Corgan. Glowing, bass-heavy synths and pulsing drum machines serve as a backdrop to his songwriterly impulses into disco (“Cyr”) and danceable post-punk (“Wrath”, “The Colour of Love”). Other times, his darkly oblique narratives, which delve into themes of love, dystopia and the occult, are counterbalanced with enormous Burundi beats (“Birch Grove”) and life-affirming pop zest (“Dulcet in E”)—backed by the soaring vocals of Sierra Swan and Pumpkins touring multi-instrumentalist Katie Cole. On the Halloween-appropriate “Wyttch”, the band crank up the distortion with a crunchy, heavier sound—softening the metal with hints of shoegaze. Overall, it’s an adventurous, musically generous offering that captures the band at their most vital when they take risks. “I’ve been beating the drum for a few years that the band has a future as a creative unit, not as a touring greatest-hits thing,” Corgan says. “The real energy of this band is in being creative. This band works in a particular way, and you have to let it happen.”