Cotillions

Touted upon its release as an excursion into country and Americana music, Cotillions -- the second LP from William Patrick Corgan (aka Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan) -- does indeed carry many of the genres instrumental trappings. Steel guitars sigh throughout the album, fiddles saw, banjos push a song or two and, more than anything, the songs are anchored on strummed acoustic guitars. Sometimes, these components are assembled in a way that can directly suggest something rootsy -- Jubilee, for instance, gallops like a bluegrass number -- but theyre often used as an accouterment for ballads that arent especially far removed from what Corgan has done in the past, particularly on Ogilala, his last album released under the William Patrick Corgan moniker. There is a difference in execution, though. Where Corgan tended toward the grandiose on his previous exercises in balladeering, Cotillions is intimate and burnished, gaining strength from its restraint in both performance and composition. While Corgan remains fond of purple lyrical passages, his songs on Cotillions arent overheated and the arrangements are colorful and full without being excessive. Much of that is due to the conscious decision to style Cotillions as a country album. Perhaps the album doesnt sound like country music, but Corgan has assembled the album with country ideals, keeping the music and emotions direct but also relaxed, and that rigorous stylistic aesthetic makes Cotillions one of his better solo albums. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine