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Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts is the twelfth studio album by American rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. The album was released in three separate installments of 11 songs—Atum: Act One was released on November 15, 2022, Atum: Act Two was released on January 31, 2023, and Atum: Act Three was released on May 5, 2023. A physical box set consisting of all 33 songs, along with a group of 10 additional exclusive songs, was released in early May 2023. This is the band's final studio album to feature guitarist Jeff Schroeder, before his departure in October 2023.
Background
Frontman Billy Corgan first announced his plans to release a "sequel" concept album to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) and Machina/The Machines of God (2000) in October 2020, shortly prior to the release of the band's eleventh studio album Cyr in November 2020.[7] Corgan had wanted to do it as early as 2017 or 2018, but with everything going on with the band at the time, including guitarist James Iha being back in the band for the first time in 18 years, and plotting a large tour around 3/4 of the original band being together again, he instead opted on the less-ambitious 8 song album Shiny and Oh So Bright (2018).[8][9] When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out years later and cancelled much of the band's planned touring, Corgan found himself with a lot of time on his hands and decided to revisit the concept.[8] The album was recorded over a span of two years, some of it concurrently with Cyr.[9]
Concept and structure
Atum is a concept album that Corgan describes as a sequel to the band's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina/The Machines of God.[10] The album tells the story of the same character followed in the prior two albums ("Zero" and "Glass") respectively, with the character now being much older than portrayed in the prior albums, and now known as "Shiny".[8] Similar to the prior albums, the story is described by Corgan as having "...one foot in reality and one foot in a made up world... It's based on a lot of autobiographical things. But there's lots of things that are things I'm just interested in exploring that don’t necessarily have anything to do with me."[8]
Atum (pronounced the same as Autumn[11][12]) was released in three main parts, called "Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3".[13] Each act consists of 11 songs, and each act was released 11 weeks after the prior.[13] Concurrent to the third act releasing, a physical box set containing all 33 songs, and an additional 10 extra songs, was also released.[13] The release schedule was designed by Corgan to help listeners pace themselves in digesting the large body of work.[9]
Sound
Contrary to Cyr's electronic and guitar-light sound, Corgan described Atum as more guitar-driven in its sound.[9] He describes the sound as going "into a million different directions", noting that around a third of the album is "heavy", a third of it sounds "kind of more similar to what [the band has] been doing recently", and a third of it sounds more "esoteric" in advancing the concept/musical aspects of the album.[9]
Release and promotion
The album's title and three part release structure was announced on September 19, 2022.[14] The album's first single, "Beguiled", was released the following day.[14] Corgan will also conduct a weekly podcast called Thirty Three, where he will play and dissect a new song each week prior to release.[13]Atum: Act One was released on November 15, 2022, Atum: Act Two was released on January 31, 2023, and Atum: Act Three was released on May 5, 2023.[11] A physical box-set, consisting of all 33 songs, along with a group of 10 additional exclusive songs, was released in early May 2023.[11] The ten additional songs, which will be spread across five 7-inch singles, were revealed in the fourth episode of Corgan's Thirty-Three podcast to be the shelved Shiny and Oh So Bright Vol. 3 album. In the final episode of the podcast, “Of Wings”, Billy revealed the title for volume three is Zodeon At Crystal Hall and that six of the bonus songs are from the true album, which is eleven songs total, with the other four being B-sides. The band embarked on the Spirits on Fire tour across North America with Jane's Addiction and Poppy leading up to the album's first release, with Our Lady Peace filling in on select Canadian dates for Jane's Addiction, and Meg Myers doing the same for Poppy.[15] On March 28, 2023 "Spellbinding" was released on streaming as the album's second single.[16] The song was also featured in the end credits of Murder Mystery 2 on Netflix.[17] On the same day that “Spellbinding” was released, the band also announced a summer tour entitled The World Is A Vampire tour. Consisting of amphitheaters and a couple of smaller indoor theaters, the band will continue to promote Atum while having support from Stone Temple Pilots, Interpol, and Rival Sons. This tour will come after the festivals of the same name that took place in Mexico City and in 8 Australian cities. On April 13, 2023, the music video for “Empires” was released, showing performance footage from the Spirits on Fire tour. It was directed by Kevin Kerslake who also directed the music video for “Cherub Rock”.
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