Touted upon its release as an excursion into country and Americana music,
Cotillions -- the second LP from
William Patrick Corgan (aka
Smashing Pumpkins leader
Billy Corgan) -- does indeed carry many of the genre's instrumental trappings. Steel guitars sigh throughout the album, fiddles saw, banjos push a song or two and, more than anything, the songs are anchored on strummed acoustic guitars. Sometimes, these components are assembled in a way that can directly suggest something rootsy -- "Jubilee," for instance, gallops like a bluegrass number -- but they're often used as an accouterment for ballads that aren't especially far removed from what
Corgan has done in the past, particularly on
Ogilala, his last album released under the
William Patrick Corgan moniker. There is a difference in execution, though. Where
Corgan tended toward the grandiose on his previous exercises in balladeering,
Cotillions is intimate and burnished, gaining strength from its restraint in both performance and composition. While
Corgan remains fond of purple lyrical passages, his songs on
Cotillions aren't overheated and the arrangements are colorful and full without being excessive. Much of that is due to the conscious decision to style
Cotillions as a country album. Perhaps the album doesn't sound like country music, but
Corgan has assembled the album with country ideals, keeping the music and emotions direct but also relaxed, and that rigorous stylistic aesthetic makes
Cotillions one of his better solo albums. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
