Anyone who has spent even a few minutes discussing music with me knows of my great interest in all things Smashing Pumpkins. In fact, I'm told that the depth of my collection of various rare singles, vinyl records, posters and T-shirts produced by the Pumpkins juggernaut over the years can be 'unsettling' for those who are not used to my depth of devotion.

Yet, even I can admit that Billy Corgan's post-Pumpkins output has been uneven, to say the least. Both the debut album from Zwan, as well as Billy's solo album had a couple of decent tracks, but the material wasn't strong enough to drown out Billy's phenomenal ego and god complex. So I had conflicting emotions when the 'doomsday card' was played, and Billy decided to get the band back together. Given a few ill-advised blog posts, it was more or less a given that neither Darcy or James Iha would be returning to the fold, but since the Pumpkins essentially are, and always have been, Corgan himself, I allowed myself to hope that he could recapture the muse and sound of the original band, and produce something worthy of the Smashing Pumpkins name.

On "Zeitgeist", he's succeeded, in a way at doing this. Listeners hoping for another opus on the scale of "Siamese Dream" or "Mellon-Collie and the Infinite Sadness" are likely to be disappointed, because "Zeitgeist" is in a lot of ways a lot more scaled down and less ambitious than those records. In a way, it sounds a lot like Billy (along with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin) is using this album to announce that he's back in business, rather than to make one of his usual grand statements.

The announcement that the band are back is made with the bludgeon of opening track Doomsday Clock. Built around heavy metal riffs and a tower of guitars, it brings back the ethos of the band in their glory days, sounding more than a little similar to Bullet With Butterfly Wings (more serious adherents of the Cult of Billy might compare it to Marquis In Spades instead). It's followed up by the equally pummelling 7 Shades of Black, which is an even less subtle exercise in riff rock.

It's after that that Billy begins to pull out the variety gun. Bleeding The Orchid is still built around a symphony of guitars, but rather than kicking the distortion into overdrive, the guitars are almost phased out of existence, and they're backed up by a vocal chorus of overdubbed Corgans. It all comes off much better than it looks like it will on paper, bringing to mind some of the more psychedelic work from the bands earlier days.

The rest of the album all proceeds in much the same way. The band have always worked better in practice than in theory, and tracks like Tarantula stick to this, the dual-channel guitar solo in the middle should sound absolutely ridiculous, but instead it makes the track really rock hard. The atrociously named Starz has lyrics that display Billy at his hilariously overwrought best, and For God and Country is a track reminiscent of the quirky electronica that closed off "Mellon-Collie", something which should never work in principle but which the band carries off easily here.

But I'd be amiss in gushing over this album, because despite the good moments, there are a few weak spots. Come On (Lets Go) and That's The Way (My Love In both display the saccharine over-the-top happiness vibe of Zwan, something which really didn't need to be revived. Some of the tracks towards the end of the album, like Neverlost, which meanders about with no particular purpose or mood in mind.

Still, claiming that this album is no good for not reaching the heights of the band's golden era albums is sort of like mocking someone for only winning an Olympic silver medal. Even without Iha and Darcy's assistance (and lets face it, they apparently didn't contribute much in the studio for the band's biggest triumphs), Corgan and Chamberlin have crafted a solid hard rock album that will be a fine base for their next effort.