Oceania (The Smashing Pumpkins album)

''Oceania'' is the eighth studio album by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, released on June 19, 2012 through Martha's Music. The album was produced by Billy Corgan and Bjorn Thorsrud, and forms part of the band's 34-track music project ''Teargarden by Kaleidyscope''. It was their first studio album to feature guitarist Jeff Schroeder, and their only album to contain contributions from bassist Nicole Fiorentino and drummer Mike Byrne, who replaced original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin.Smashing Pumpkins Unveil Album Cover for Oceania
Press release. 2012-04-30.

The album was a critical and commercial success, debuting at number four on the ''Billboard'' 200. As of September 2012, ''Oceania'' sold over 102,000 copies in the US. A live performance of the album, '' Oceania: Live in NYC'', was released on September 24, 2013.

Background and recording

On April 26, 2011, in a video on the band's Facebook fan page, frontman Billy Corgan announced plans to release ''Oceania'' as "an album within an album," relating to ''Teargarden by Kaleidyscope'' which involved releasing songs one by one, for free on the Internet from late 2009, and then releasing them in EPs – after claiming that albums are a dead medium. While ''Oceania'' may appear to contradict that, Corgan explains:

Corgan later admitted that they switched back to the album format because he "...reached a point where I saw that the one-song-at-a-time idea had maxed itself out...I just saw we weren't getting the penetration in to everybody that I would have hoped."

The band finished mixing the album on September 18, 2011.

''Oceania'' was the first full-length album recorded with guitarist Jeff Schroeder, and the only album recorded with drummer Mike Byrne and bassist Nicole Fiorentino. The band was supplemented in-studio by an unnamed session keyboardist.Billy Corgan Smashes Back
". MSN Music. 2012-06-19. Fiorentino had this to say about her role in recording ''Oceania'':

Guitarist Jeff Schroeder also hinted that the album may be less heavy than past albums, stating "In this day and age, with what's going on politically and socially, it just feels right to play something that's a little more spacey and dreamy. We want music to move people on an emotional level."

In November 2011, the album's release date was pushed back to spring 2012 and announced via Twitter.

Corgan has said that ''Oceania'' is the Pumpkins' "best effort since '' Mellon Collie''". Comparing it to his previous works, he said, "it is the first time where you actually hear me escape the old band. I'm not reacting against it or for it or in the shadow of it."

Writing and composition

In describing ''Oceania''s theme, Billy Corgan said the album is partly about "people struggling to find a social identity in today's fast-paced, technology-rich culture", adding "I think alienation seems to be the key theme – alienation in love and alienation in culture," he says.

Regarding the album's lyrical content, Corgan noted "If you listen to the lyrics, it was written around some serious relationship strife. When somebody breaks your heart, you can choose to accept, embrace, and forgive them, as opposed to condemn them. I got a few albums out of iccondemn! Now I'm working on compassion as a device."

Release and promotion

The album was tentatively scheduled to be released on September 1, 2011, but the release date was pushed to June 19, 2012. On March 27, 2012, EMI/Caroline Distribution announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Martha's Music to release the album on June 19, 2012. In late May 2012, the band announced that they were holding an event called "Imagine Oceania", requesting fans to take and submit their own photos for the album. On June 12, the album was made available to stream in full via iTunes. The album also became available for full streaming on Spotify, SoundCloud, Spinner, and Ustream. Corgan appeared on ''The Howard Stern Show'' on June 19, performing an acoustic version of " Tonight, Tonight". Howard Stern interviewed Corgan for more than an hour and premiered "Violet Rays" from the album. On June 21, 2012, " The Celestials" was released as the album's first single. They performed the song on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' on August 23, 2012. " Panopticon" was released as the second single on September 15, 2012.
In 2014, the song "My Love is Winter" was featured on the soundtrack for the video game ''Watch Dogs''.

The album cover features the North Shore Sanitary District Tower.

Reception

According to ''Billboard'', the album in its first week of release sold 54,000 copies in the US, debuted at number four on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart and at number one on the Independent Albums chart—making it the band's seventh top 10 album to date. The album has received generally positive reviews. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received thus far an average score of 72, indicating "generally favorable reviews". RedEye gave the album three stars out of four, saying "''Oceania'', the first full-length Pumpkins album since 2007's ''Zeitgeist'', is the best thing Corgan and Co. have produced in quite some time. Longtime fans will hear hints of the grungy, vicious band of the ''Gish'' era and also the mellow, almost pop '' Adore'' era. It's a mix that works." Antiquiet gave album four out of five stars and called it "best Corgan work in a decade". Gigwise gave the album four stars out of five and praised its production and themes. ''Toronto Sun'' gave the album four stars out of five, saying "With Billy Corgan, bigger is better. And his latest project—the ongoing 44-song ''Teargarden by Kaleidyscope''—is his most ambitious since 2000's '' Machina''. In keeping, this 'album-within-an-album' bears all the classic Pumpkins hallmarks: Searing guitars and busy drums, epic songs and complex arrangements, wistful romanticism and bombastic grandeur. His best work in years."

PopMatters gave the album seven out of 10 stars, describing the album as "...a spinoff that doesn't hold the brilliance of an original, but is charismatic in its own right. A more grown-up manifestation of the adolescent self-obsessed gloomy beginnings." BBC
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