Zwan -- Mary Star of the Sea

10/10

I am so excited that I get to end this series with an album I truly love. I guess, alphabetically, not much can come after "Zwan." Zwan was a supergroup formed by Billy Corgan, a band that only put out one full-length album, Mary Star of the Sea, then quickly imploded in waves of discord. 

I'll make a confession here: I like Mary Star of the Sea more than I like any Smashing Pumpkins album. This is perfect music. You have three guitars playing in harmonious unity. You've got bassist, Paz Lechantin, blending her voice perfectly with Corgan's (while putting on a bass clinic). You've got Jimmy Chamberlain quite arguably showcasing one of the greatest studio drum performances of all time. 

I most definitely digged on some Pumpkins songs in the 90's, and still do now, but I wasn't anticipating follow Corgan onto any other project. That all changed when I saw the video for Mary Star of the Sea's "Honestly," and Paz Lenchantin smiled at me. Yes, that's all it took for me to buy an album then, but boy did I not regret it. 

I remember, maybe three tracks in, saying, presumably out loud in my car, "WOW! This is good!!!" The quality never flags. This album is fourteen tracks of perfect rock music, Corgan looking skyward, pondering spiritual matters, sounding like he's smiling and happy for the first time in his life. Not coincidentally, Mary Star of the Sea is a spiritual experience. 

Corgan understands how to make an album quite well by this point, so 11 tracks into this masterpiece, he introduces a little malaise into the album, so that he can resolve it and provide a tsunami of a catharsis in the penultimate 14-minute track, "Jesus I/Mary Star of the Sea," which features a great, more traditional song structure to start with before making its way to a quiet, more contemplative section that starts adding layer after layer of beautiful guitar, before cascades of solos rain down from the heavens, and Jimmy Chamberlain does drum rolls so hard and so fast, it sounds like the sky is breaking in half. It is amazing. Mary Star of the Sea is amazing. It makes sense that this band couldn't last more than a year. Nothing gold can stay.

Not even my run-on sentences.  


2003 Reprise
1. Lyric 3:18
2. Settle Down 5:26
3. Declarations Of Faith 4:18
4. Honestly 3:45
5. El Sol 3:39
6. Of A Broken Heart 3:54
7. Ride A Black Swan 4:54
8. Heartsong 3:08
9. Endless Summer 4:22
10. Baby Let's Rock! 3:41
11. Yeah! 3:06
12. Desire 4:15
13. Jesus, I / Mary Star Of The Sea 14:04
14. Come With Me 4:01