Highlights include "That's the Way (My Love Is)," on which sheets of melodic guitar, heavily influenced by wistful shoegazers such as My Bloody Valentine, dominate. The ghostly synthesizers (very Scary Monsters-era Bowie) and cloudy drones of "For God and Country" also feel fine, and the guitars of "Doomsday Clock" scream in like a bottle-rocket and distort almost immediately, complementing Chamberlin's Animal-from-the-Muppets drumming.
Sure, a few weak tunes sound like Smashing Pumpkins karaoke, and Zeitgeist's tricks aren't quite as revolutionary today as they were when the Pumpkins debuted — just as other grunge-era bands sound far less dangerous today than they did in 1993. But fans of a certain age (20- and 30-somethings, mostly) who were inundated with Pumpkins music in high school and college will find Zeitgeist familiar, if not nostalgia-inducing. It'll be more interesting to see how a generation of kids weaned on bands influenced by the Pumpkins — especially Muse, Silversun Pickups and My Chemical Romance — respond to Corgan's pomp and circumstance.
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