Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

Few albums carry a harder-fought backstory than Siamese Dream. Released in 1993 on Virgin Records and produced by Butch Vig alongside frontman Billy Corgan, the record was made under genuinely brutal conditions, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin battling heroin addiction, James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky navigating a recent breakup while still in the same band, and Corgan himself wrestling with depression and crippling writer's block. The band relocated to Triclops Studios in Marietta, Georgia specifically to isolate Chamberlin from his usual connections, then worked brutal, near-round-the-clock sessions for months to get the album finished.

None of that struggle shows up as weakness on the record. If anything, it's channeled into some of the most massive, meticulously layered guitar work of the decade, with Corgan reportedly tracking dozens of overdubbed guitar parts to build the album's wall-of-sound intensity. "Cherub Rock" opens the album with a defiant statement of purpose, "Today" turns crushing personal despair into one of the era's most enduring anthems, and "Disarm" strips everything back to strings and vulnerability, showing the range that set the Pumpkins apart from their alt-rock peers.

Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell more than six million copies worldwide, earning four-times platinum certification and establishing the Smashing Pumpkins as one of the defining bands of '90s alternative rock.

This 2LP set comes on 180-gram black vinyl with the original 1993 packaging intact, a faithful way to own one of the most influential rock records of its decade.