Billy Corgan Releases New Smashing Pumpkins Song, ‘Widow Wake My Mind’

As part of his bold new venture in releasing each song from his 44-song epic Teargarden by Kaleidyscope individually month-by-month, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has released the second song from the album, “Widow Wake My Mind,” to the public on Monday. The track is downloadable for free at the official Smashing Pumpkins website.

Corgan told MTV.com back in December of the album:

“The average consumer can download it for free, as much or as little of it as they want…At the end, the whole thing will be brought together in a special package that isn’t for the average consumer. In a way, it’s a work in progress, but at the same time people can share in it and participate in it in the normal ways.”

The Wall Street Journal blog compared the feel of the track to “mid-career Beatles.” D. Patrick Rodgers (pretentious much?) of the Nashville Scene is clearly a Pumpkins purist, and likely a charter member of Generation X, who ripped the new song and Corgan himself with the opening line, “What happened to you, Billy?”

Regardless of how it sounds compared to earlier releases, or the first released track, the Stairway to Heaven-inspired “Song for a Son,” “Widow Wake My Mind” features a bouncy melody with shifting time signatures, minimalist guitar work and background synths that add a radio-friendly layer. Based on the sharp contrasts that found between the first two tracks of Corgan’s epic, it can be assumed that the entire album will feature shifts in tone, style and structure.