There are many reasons-- cynical, sad, or artistic-- for Billy Corgan to pull the Smashing Pumpkins moniker out of the crawlspace. Corgan has hardly been in hiding since the Pumpkins were dissolved in 2000, making music first with short-lived supergroup Zwan and then under his own name for 2005's TheFutureEmbrace. That latter record's commercial fizzle was abetted by Corgan's newspaper-ad announcement-- on the very day of TheFutureEmbrace's release-- that he was getting the band back together. Of course, the only actual reunion taking place was between Corgan and his most famous brand; drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was already involved in both post-Pumpkins projects, and James Iha/D'Arcy preferred to stay in hiding.

Thus, one couldn't help but feel that the Smashing Pumpkins revival wasn't little more than a calculated move for cash or attention or both. And, unsurprisingly, the strategy worked-- nobody could claim that Zeitgeist or the corresponding tour would have attracted nearly as much attention if the words "Billy Corgan" were at the top of that awful cover art instead of Smashing Pumpkins. But, it's possible, just maybe, that Corgan had artistic reasons for the switchback, genuinely wanting to reclaim the muse that led to his most artistically and commercially successful work, and add to the legacy of his most famous project. Hey, stranger things have happened.

Zeitgeist's replication of that old SP sound is impressive, despite the lack of half the original lineup...it's not like Corgan ever let D'Arcy or Iha do anything in the studio anyway. For a band that was stadium-size right out of the box, it's a return to the band's trademark overdriven and overblown M.O., inflated even further by a few tracks with legendary Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker. Corgan's guitar tone remains utterly unique, folding umpteen overdubs into the razor-sharp solos and grinding chords that are recognizable as his from the first note of "Doomsday Clock". Chamberlin, meanwhile, bashes with the same enthusiasm of his much younger self, helped by production that isn't afraid to push the drums front and center.

I'd be a liar if I didn't admit that it sounds big when compared to the relatively thin, wispy sound of the modern alt-rock competition. Songs like "Doomsday Clock" and "Tarantula" wave the flag of stoner rock like Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult without embarrassment, and could likely pass for Queens of the Stone Age if it wasn't for that characteristic Corgan whine. On the other hand, this hard-rock approach only used to be one aspect of the Pumpkins persona, call it the "Zero" dimension. By focusing only on this portion of the group's character, Corgan misremembers the versatility that launched his band to the A-list: not just guitar-god bludgeoning, but epic psychedelia like "Rhinoceros", fragile pop like "Today," wide-screen symphonics like "Tonight, Tonight", and synth-loop ballads like "1979".

Most of those flavors are suspiciously absent on Zeitgeist, making it far more aggressive than any other record in their catalog-- perhaps a preemptive response to charges of getting old and mellow. Unfortunately, that leaves the record rather homogenous; while Corgan still can pull out a melodic surprise ("7 Shades of Black") or conjure up a dense effects-pedal atmosphere ("That's the Way (My Love Is)"), he lacks for variety. When he tries, the album-closing duo (depending on what chain store you bought the album from, I suppose) of "For God and Country" and "Pomp and Circumstances" are bland reminders of the synthy midtempo blandness that once tripped up Adore. When he stretches, as on the centerpiece "United States," the result has none of the cosmic magnitude of previous 10+-minute Pumpkins epics, instead opting for a turgid, chugging pace and thimble-deep political commentary.

That substitution of political angst for the personal kind is the one nod to maturity on Zeitgeist, though some of the get-happy sloganeering of Zwan persists as well on tracks like "(Come On) Let's Go!" Yet Corgan's serrated voice hasn't dulled with age, and unlike the refreshing heaviness of the band's restored sound, it sounds more and more ridiculous, well along the almost-inevitable march of all iconic rock voices towards self-parody. The disconnect between tortured nasality and lyrical content is never more awkward than on lazy tracks like "Bring the Light", where Corgan is content to merely whine the title with dozens of different inflections, or the chorus of Billys that backs up "Starz".

Of course, nobody wants progression from the Smashing Pumpkins, that's the whole point of manufacturing this reunion in the first place. In that sense, Zeitgeist is interesting as a demonstration that the artist himself is usually not be the best person to play historian for his own career. Given the chance to revisit the good old days, Corgan has unearthed only a portion of the Pumpkins character-- and while that portion is meticulously revived, all the parts left behind remain sorely missed. In the end, it's the one-dimensional approach, not the lack of half the original members, that leaves Smashing Pumpkins Mk. II a cardboard cutout of the real thing-- not the empty ATM-reunion it could have been, but still a ghost of the old band.