Rocker Billy Corgan is standing up for his fellow songwriter Taylor Swift's decision to include an impressive 31 songs on her latest release, The Tortured Poets Department, feeling a bit of camaraderie in their shared love of a long tracklist.
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Fans of The Smashing Pumpkins are well aware of frontman Billy Corgan's affinity for a prolonged playlist, looking only at the band's album liner notes for their latest ATUM (A Rock Opera in Three Acts), and of course, the group's iconic Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness which bumps up pretty close to Taylor Swift's most recent 31 track offering.
Speaking with The Irish Times in a new interview, Billy praised her decision to put everything including the kitchen sink into TTPD, saying Taylor "is one of the most gifted pop artists of all time," and then asked, "How is it a bad thing that she’s releasing more music? I can’t follow that." Reiterating his stance, he adds if anyone felt the need to move on faster than she allowed on the record, they could "just skip it."
“People complained about the length of my last album, Atum,” he explained, of the group's over two-hour-opus released last year. “I thought, ‘Well, just go make your own playlist. Just listen to the record one time – rag over the six or 10 songs you like and make your own record.’ Why is this such a strange concept?”
Touching on the passing of Irish icon Sinead O'Connor, Corgan added, “Now that Sinéad’s gone, would it be a bad thing if somebody turned up tomorrow and said, ‘Hey, I just found this tape, and there’s enough for 20′ – or 30 or 50 – ‘Sinéad songs.’ Would that be a bad thing?”
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Last summer Corgan sat down with host Conan O'Brien to discuss, among other things, some of his musical inspirations and wouldn't you know it, he cited Pink Floyd -- one of the lengthy greats -- as a band that has affected him in a certain way throughout his career. Check out the full interview HERE.
The Smashing Pumpkins will be hitting the road this summer with their new guitarist alongside Green Day and Rancid, beginning on July 29, making stops in 27 cities on their North American trek. Tickets are on sale now.