Last week, Billy Corgan was on Twitter, teasing “big news” about Smashing Pumpkins to arrive on Monday (yesterday); he’s only a day late, and the news is, if not “big,” then at least noteworthy. According to an update from Corgan published on the band’s new official site (or “Nexus,” as he calls it), The Panopticon, Corgan has inked a deal with BMG to release two Smashing Pumpkins albums in 2015, to be titled Monuments To An Elegy and Day For Night, respectively. “For those interested in sound,” he writes, “think: ‘guitars, guitars, guitars, and more guitars;’ but more so on the epic side of things than say, grossly metallic.” (Is that a dig at Zeitgeist? Kinda sounds like it!)

There’s plenty of reason to be enthused by this news, as well as plenty of reason for ambivalence. On one hand, the last Smashing Pumpkins LP, 2012’s Oceania, was quite good, and Billy does “guitars, guitars, guitars, and more guitars” better than almost anyone. On the other hand, Oceania wasn’t exactly bursting at the seams with new ideas and timeless songs. That’s not to say Billy doesn’t have two LPs’ worth of good music in his future — he almost certainly does — but two LPs worth of good music in one year? Even prolific artists at their creative peaks struggle with that kind of output.

I guess we’ll see! Of course, if these two albums turn out to be receptacles for refined versions of songs culled from his eight-hour Siddhartha-inspired jam session, my trepidation will be rendered moot … and quickly replaced by embarrassment and loathing. Check the full statement from Billy himself below.

Two New Smashing Pumpkins Albums Set for 2015

March 25, 2014

Pleased to announce that I’ve just inked a new record deal with BMG that will see the release of two Smashing Pumpkins albums in 2015; titled successively: ‘Monuments To An Elegy’ and ‘Day For Night.’ For those interested in sound, think: ‘guitars, guitars, guitars, and more guitars;’ but more so on the epic side of things than say, grossly metallic. Recording sessions begin today, as plenty of songs have been written and ready to go. Manning the boards will be producer Howard Willing, with whom I first had the pleasure of working with during the ‘Adore’ sessions. We expect a single out by year’s end.