Smashing Pumpkins Start Recoding 33-Song Sequel to ‘Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness’ + ‘Machina’

Smashing Pumpkins visionary Billy Corgan is one immensely prolific songwriter. So much so that the band has just started the recording phase of a 33-song new album that will serve as the sequel to the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness double album as well as the two installments of Machina.

So, yes, this forthcoming record is a joint sequel to what ultimately amounts to three existing albums in the Pumpkins catalog. Corgan certainly knows how to keep things interesting, especially after dishing out 2019’s 20-track alt-pop synth-heavy album, Cyr, the band’s first on Sumerian Records.

The news was confirmed through the Smashing Pumpkins’ official social media profiles where a blurry image of a drum set was adorned with text atop the image that reads, “Starting new SP album today, the 33 song sequel to MCIS and Machina. Songs are written, lyrics too…so now it’s just record-record-record.”

In the fall of last year, Corgan confirmed the 33-track sequel was in motion, stating the material was shaping up to be “kind of a rock opera.”

Corgan later commented in early 2021 that an updated version of Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, which was released for free on the internet in 2000, could potentially see an update upward of 80 songs.

Of the pair of Machine albums and the forthcoming update, Corgan explained, “It was written to be kind of like a musical, but because it was never finished, it was like shooting a movie that wasn’t fully edited right. Machina I was like one edit of the footage, and Machina II was some of the leftover footage – but there was even more stuff leftover. So, this was my attempt, 20 years later, to kind of finish the movie and in the process of trying to finish the movie, realizing the movie can never be finished because a lot of stuff wasn’t finished.”

Billy Corgan Shares Update on New Smashing Pumpkins Album