Celebrating 21 Years of "The Future Embrace", a Polarizing Album That Helped Shape My Musical Tastes

 

I cover so much stoner/doom on my social media accounts that I sometimes forget that this little blog of mine was also designed to highlight alternative music as well. The twenty-first anniversary of Billy Corgan's solo album The Future Embrace seems like a good opportunity for such a post, specifically one that strolls down memory lane a bit in my case. If this topic isn't for you, I totally understand...thanks for stopping by anyway! Otherwise, read on and you'll learn a few random facts about me in the process :) 

As I'm sure a few of you know (or have deduced), The Smashing Pumpkins are one of my favorite bands on Earth, and Billy Corgan, contentious figure that he is, remains one of my favorite musicians. My devotion began just before I started college...while my peers were listening to bands like The Killers and Jimmy Eat World, I was walking around campus with Gish spinning endlessly in my Sony Walkman. I had every Smashing Pumpkins album released up until that point, ending with Machina/The Machines of God. I also bought Billy Corgan's book of poetry, Blinking with Fists, which I found to be rather silly at the time (perhaps my young adult mind hadn't yet acquired the patience and wisdom required to clear the lens that aids in decoding simile, metaphor, and wordplay). D'Arcy Wretzky and Melissa Auf der Maur (who both played bass for the 'Pumpkins) were two of the women in rock who inspired me to pick up a bass guitar (that didn't work out...I still have the bass, though). Within my sketchbooks, I had doodled various tattoo ideas related to the band including stanzas of lyrics that I ached to have permanently etched upon my body (that never happened, as I came to the conclusion that ghastly pale, heavily freckled skin such as mine isn't suited for the harshness of ink). Ah, youth... 

In 2005, Billy Corgan released his first solo album: The Future Embrace (which was released exactly twenty-one years ago on the day of this writing). Naturally, I had to get my paws on it and, since I had just begun working in a record store, it was the first album I used my employee discount to purchase (fun fact: I was the only person who bought the album from that store during my stint there). 

If you don't know, The Future Embrace is essentially an electronic album, with elements of shoegaze and synth pop, starkly different from the guitar-driven sounds of The Smashing Pumpkins. Critics mostly hated it, and I was fully prepared to hate it...but I didn't. In fact, this controversial little album became one of my favorite Smashing Pumpkins-associated things. 

No one can deny that Billy Corgan has a distinguishable voice...an admittedly grating voice at times as it peaks in intensity, but we all recognize that's part of the appeal. Interestingly, this style of singing is naturally quite adaptable. When paired with dream pop/shoegaze instrumentals while crooning in hushed, melodic tones, it has a calming effect (By Starlight from the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness album is an example). Conversely, when placed over heavier guitars, the voice becomes a bit of a character; something fittingly dark, evil, or deranged as the situation calls for (as heard in X.Y.U., another track from Mellon Collie). I found that, when coupled with the crisp, often impersonal tones of electronica, the soothing qualities of Billy Corgan's voice became more pronounced, adding enough humanness to relay emotion but remaining "unearthly" enough to fit inconspicuously into the automation-like atmosphere. The style of electronic music present on The Future Embrace isn't the type to encourage you to dance...whether a song is fast-paced or more relaxed in tempo, the music here has more of a hypnotic effect. However, and perhaps the best part, is there are an adequate amount of swells of intensity that rouse your from your trance and make you feel giddy and alive (as goofy as that might sound). 

I'd implore you to listen for yourself if you haven't already, but this album can't be found on streaming services (some live performances and a few tracks can be found on YouTube). Luckily for me, I still have my trusty decades-old CD, with me both physically and abstractly as just one of the many pieces that helped broaden my musical tastes.  

Do you remember hearing this album when it was released? What were your impressions? Feel free to share them with me in the comments. 

The official music video for "Walking Shade", one of my favorite songs on "The Future Embrace".