“Chrome Jets” rocks. The new Smashing Pumpkins track was first conceived during the Aghori Mhori Mei sessions, and it finally sees the light of day today.
Billy Corgan has described Aghori Mhori Mei as a return to the band’s core identity—a guitar-driven rock album that channels the spirit of their early classics. It’s easy to hear how “Chrome Jets” fits that vision. The song leans hard on riffs and old-school guitar work, echoing the drive of Siamese Dream’s “Cherub Rock” and the punch of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’s “Jelly Belly.” At the same time, it could easily slot alongside the heavier tracks from Aghori Mhori Mei like “Sicarus” and “War Dreams Of Itself”.
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Corgan has long mastered the art of rock dynamics, both in his songwriting and his vocals, and he brings that nuance to “Chrome Jets.” He delivers lines like “Empty promise scars / Damage, if pain is art” with raw emotion and strain, then shifts to restraint on the stark, synth-driven bridge: “D-i-e are we in love?”
The Smashing Pumpkins are looking back on their legacy. The unveiled track arrives following the band’s 25th anniversary reissue and revival of their 2000 opus Machina/The Machines of God and its companion release Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music.
And later this year, the Pumpkins will also honor the 30th anniversary of their landmark album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. But The Smashing Pumpkins aren’t recreating the past with “Chrome Jets”. The song captures the raw rock energy that made the Pumpkins iconic while pushing the band’s thread forward into what is coming next. And if this track is any sign of what was left on the cutting-room floor of Aghori Mhori Mei, fans can feel lucky… the gifts are still coming.
Photo by Venla Shalin/Redferns
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