review us uk.....
AllMusic: 4/5 stars
"Following up on, and in many ways amending, much of the bombastic overcompensation of 2007's Zeitgeist, Smashing Pumpkins 2012 release Oceania is an exuberant, gloriously melodic, fluid return to form for Billy Corgan."
theAmp: 8/10
"Overall, it’s a great return from The Smashing Pumpkins, but it’s also a great prologue for them to continue off on their next release."
An Focal: 83/100
"This album is a supreme return to form by Corgan and company. After the bad taste Zeitgeist left, Oceania is a vibrant, expressive joy of an album."
antiquiet: 4/5 stars
"It’s officially time to drop the pitchforks and stop complaining about Corgan keeping the band name – Oceania has made it clear that he still possesses the ability to write a Pumpkins’ album, and the new band is more than capable of joining him for the ride."
Artistdirect.com: 5/5 stars
"Oceania is the year's best rock record and a milestone for the genre."
The Arts Desk: 4/5 stars
"... prune away all the baggage and Oceania stands up as a very plausible specimen of Pumpkinness."
AwkwardSound: 8/10
"Let's hope Oceania isn't just an obligatory 'formal album' project to keep the Smashing Pumpkins' brand name in the spotlight before he goes off the deep end again, because if Billy Corgan has shown the world anything here, it's that he can be just as good as most of us remember, just as long as he wants to be."
BBC: (favorable)
"Straddling the line between art and commerce, between arena rock and cult devotion, for the first time in quite a while Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins sound energised and alive."
Boston Globe: (favorable)
"A classic-rock guy at heart, Corgan occasionally emulates Pink Floyd and the Who; but overall the Pumpkins leave an original stamp on this package."
The Boston Phoenix: 4/4 stars
"On Oceania, the band's (unexpectedly) jaw-dropping ninth studio album (a stand-alone movement within the ongoing, song-at-a-time series Teargarden by Kaleidyscope), Corgan finally sounds comfortable being himself again — and that reinvigorated confidence results in the year's most outstanding rock album."
Calgary Herald: 4/5 stars
"It’s as sure-handed and successfully realized a vision as he’s had since the double-album Mellon Collie, and one that should have Corgan returning to the head of the class for beautiful, brooding, melodic rock."
Chicago Sun-Times: 4/4 stars
"Dedicated fans can feel vindicated. Wayward souls can return to the flock. Doubters can hush up. Those who feared Corgan was getting strangely distracted -- the pro-wrestling group, the North Shore tea shop -- can rest easy."
Chicago Tribune/CLTV: 3.5/4 stars
"For once the comparisons to ‘90s Pumpkins don’t ring hollow."
Contactmusic.com: (unfavorable)
"Whether or not it's a personnel issue, or the fire has simply gone out, 'Oceania' is troubled by its own weakness and lack of potency or direction."
Corey in Training: (mixed)
"While it’s far from boring, the album lacks a distinctive likeability. The songs are good, not great and not as extraordinary as they should be if they want to be apart of the best rock album of 2012."
Crave Online: 8/10 stars
"The record stands alone as its own statement, made by not just Corgan but also a real band behind him."
"This new studio release is a juggernaut that is going to take a couple of listens in order to let it sink in because it’s more experimental than what fans may be used to."
diffuser.fm: 7/10
"That an album can be so silly and so serious is enchanting. For lack of a better term, ‘Oceania’ is a soundscape, something to drift along with on a long summer of the cosmos."
Discubed: 4.5/5 stars
"An esoteric experience to be enjoyed in its entirety, this album is so much more than just a collection of singles pre-packaged for mass consumption."
Dose: 4/5 stars
"It's as sure-handed and successfully realized a vision as he’s had since the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and one that should have Corgan returning to the head of the class for beautiful, brooding, melodic rock."
Georgia Straight: (favorable)
"Will Oceania unseat Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness , or even Adore , as your go-to Smashing Pumpkins LP? Probably not. But it is good enough to suggest that Corgan has earned the right to be a cocky asshole once in a while."
GigWise: 4/5 stars
"Listen to ‘Oceania’ in the hopes of another ‘Melon Collie’ and you’ll be disappointed. But take it as a new Smashing Pumpkins album and it isn’t half bad at all."
Grunge Report: A-
"Overall, this is definitely the best Smashing Pumpkins album since 1998′s Adore. It’s definitely the best his voice has sounded since then, and also the most inspired."
Hear Me Out: (favorable)
"This album creates a happy medium between the past and how the band are trying to push forward in the future."
The Independent: 3/5 stars
"In truth, Oceania is best listened to in bits. Like, for example, 'One Diamond, One Heart', 'The Celestials' and 'My Love is Winter', on which the Pumpkins' pomposity becomes a positive."
Junk Food for Thought: (favorable)
"This may be the first album by the band that the world at large has paid attention to since the Clinton administration, but to us diehards it's just another great addition to Corgan and company's body of work."
Kerrang!: 4/5 stars
"This isn't a record that gives up its secrets easily; instead, it rewards patience."
London Evening Standard: 4/5 stars
"Corgan’s lyrics are simple yet opaque — nebulous love and coloured lights abound — and the suspicion remains that he is neither grunge nor pomp rocker at heart but more of a good old-fashioned hippy."
London Free Press: 4/5 stars
"... his ‘album-within-an-album’ bears all the classic Pumpkins hallmarks: Searing guitars and busy drums, epic songs and complex arrangements, wistful romanticism and bombastic grandeur. His best work in years."
Loudwire: 3.5/5 stars
"The Smashing Pumpkins showcase incredible chemistry, giving hope that the band, again, has the potential to be a dominating force in the world of alt-rock."
Mapped by What Surrounded Them: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It
"While Oceania won't fit neatly in their canon of classic albums, it is by far Corgan's most cohesive Smashing Pumpkins' record in years, and for that alone it is worth listening."
Metro: (favorable)
"From the restless, revved-up Zeppelinesque opener Quasar through to the hypnotic, synth-heavy comedown closer Wildflower, Oceania is an album of satisfyingly varied textures and moods."
Montreal Gazette: 4/5 stars
"Oceania sounds like his Presence crossed with his In Through the Out Door, through the epic-within-an-epic nine-minute title track and its crazed ride-out."
Mountain Weekly News: (favorable)
"Nothing on _Oceania_ sounds like filler in the least. And, ultimately, isn’t that what we’re all looking for in an album?"
musicOMH: 3.5/5 stars
"... on the whole it's an album that finally, after a dozen years, shows that there can be a place for the Pumpkins in the 21st century."
The Musician Reviewer: (favorable)
"While I enjoyed several tracks on this album, I wouldn’t call this a “return-to-form” for the Smashing Pumpkins. And while I would say this is a must-listen album (if only for its historical value), I wouldn’t call it a must-have album."
The Music Moms: (favorable)
"The other day a friend of mine posted on his Facebook wall saying something like 'Does anyone care that The Smashing Pumpkins are putting out music without any original members?' Well after listening to Oceania my response is: yes, I care. And so should you."
New Adventures in Hi-Fi: (favorable)
"Drip-feeding tracks through the Teargarden project is still a disjointed way of releasing new music, and while a lot of good stuff has come out of it, the focus of crafting Oceania as an album in the middle of it has definitely paid off. And so has the patience of Smashing Pumpkins fans like me, because this time, they really are back."
orted guitar-driven grunge such as 'Quasar' to the progish 'One Diamond, One Heart.'"
New Zealand Herald: 4/5 stars
"Verdict: Nineties alt-rock titans finally find some smashing form"
No Ripcord: 7/10
"... while Corgan feels reinvigorated, utterly convinced that’s he’s finally nailed it this time, the final product doesn’t hold up as an entirely ingenious one. What it does, however, is give some validity to a band that is long overdue the banner of respect it actually deserves."
OurVinyl: (favorable)
"The album is a collision of all the sounds the Pumpkins have ever explored: From grunge, gothic rock, heavy metal, pop and psychedelic. This is a completely new, fresh start for The Smashing Pumpkins; giving Placebo a run for their money."
Paste Magazine: 8.3/10
"It’s almost as if the Pumpkins were using this Teargarden set to fully gear up for Oceania, which is the group’s most focused, and solid effort since 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God."
Pop! Blerd: A-
"In the grand scheme of the Smashing Pumpkins discography, I would probably put this album third or fourth in the depth chart behind Siamese Dream and Adore."
PopDose: (favorable)
"Add the Smashing Pumpkins to a list of dearly departed bands that have returned in recent years (Devo, Blancmange, Duran Duran, OMD) — not as nostalgia acts, but as bands that miraculously recaptured the spark that made them special in the first place before moving forward."
Pop Matters (Take 1): 7/10
"Oceania is definitely not without its faults, but with repeated listens and an honest approach to the metrics and themes Corgan’s hitting, this rhizomed Pumpkins reboot will dispel your notions that the Pumpkins can’t exist without its other three founding members."
Pop Matters (Take 2): 4/10
"Billy Corgan can’t ever quite muster up the magic of the Pumpkins’ early years because, to be honest, the songs just aren’t good enough."
Pursuit of Dopeness: 4/5 stars
"Once you get past the initial feeling of nostalgia, fans can enjoy this album as another classic from the Pumpkins."
Q101: (mixed)
"To our ears, there aren’t any hits. A few tunes are pretty damn solid though."
A Reasonable Good Ear: (favorable)
"Oceania is the type of album that we long suffering Smashing Pumpkin fans never thought that we would get to experience."
RedEye: 3/4 stars
"'Oceania,' the first full-length Pumpkins album since 2007's 'Zeitgeist,' is the best thing Corgan and Co. have produced in quite some time."
The Review Busters: 7.5/10
"Oceania has the general sound of the Smashing Pumpkins, but it is a combination of Adore and Siamese Dream. Yeah, that sounds good, but combing those two albums and having the “new” Smashing Pumpkins making Oceania, not the best effort."
Rolling Stone: 3/5 stars
"...it's also a good stand-alone record, a bong-prog take on the alt-rock grandeur of Gish and Siamese Dream."
The Ruse of Fools: 9/10
"Some people will be down on this album because as of now there is no single, and because once again Billy didn't just make a Siamese and the Infinite Sadness rehash to please the radio and MTV...but that's what I like about it."
Seemingly Theatrical: (favorable)
"Corgan and Co. have found a rhythm many thought disappeared with the discombobulated releases of the 00s, Machina and Zeitgeist, and we are all better off for it."
Slant Magazine: 3.5/5 stars
"The album effectively conjures much of the band's lost charisma while shedding the forced, clumsy, and otherwise ill-conceived qualities of Zeitgeist and Teagarden."
Sloucher: 5/5 stars
"Oceania. I’d hate to say this is a return to form because… who the fuck knows what is the 'form' of Smashing Pumpkins?"
Space Giraffe: (favorable)
"The bottom line here is that The Smashing Pumpkins aren’t just an aging rock band trying to recapture their youth again, they sound rejuvenated and excited about music again."
The Speaker Box Below: 7.5/10
"Oceania might not be up there with some of their previous work but it certainly re-captures both the audiences imagination and interest."
Sputnikmusic: 4.5 stars
"Corgan and his group should be praised. Instead of relying upon the old classics, touring the same old stuff, he and SP have forged ahead to create a record that could well be the catalyst of a stellar second era for one of rock’s more interesting groups."
Stereogum: (favorable)
"It’s typical to overreact when a once-great artist — previously believed to be deep into his dotage — hits that sweet spot again, but I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic when I say that Oceania is Corgan’s best album since Mary Star Of The Sea, and the best Smashing Pumpkins album since … Melon Collie [sic]?"
Stereo Killer: 5/5 stars
"In a time when most of our rock music comes in safe and easily digestible capsules, Oceania is a testament to when bands would take risks and I think we needed this record more than we realize."
StrangeLuv: A-
"This is easily the Pumpkins best album since 1995′s Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness [sic]. It’s not even a question."
Tap Milwaukee: (favorable)
"'Oceania' isn't so epic as its length implies, but Corgan rolls smoothly through its waves."
The Way That He Sings: 8/10
"What we have with Oceania is the classic Pumpkins drums, the Corgan guitar – and this time with a flare for the melodic hook along with small breaks from the guitar onslaught."
Toronto Sun: 4/5 stars
"In keeping, this ‘album-within-an-album’ bears all the classic Pumpkins hallmarks: Searing guitars and busy drums, epic songs and complex arrangements, wistful romanticism and bombastic grandeur. His best work in years."
Ultimate Guitar: 8.3/10
"Really, when I put my nostalgic emotions behind me, this isn't a bad album and for the current musical environment it is outstanding."
USA Today: 3.5/4 stars
"The current lineup bears no resemblance to the original, save for founder Billy Corgan, the engimatic visionary whose creative engines are roaring with an intensity and creative pluck unmatched since his mid-'90s classics."
Wicked Mike: (favorable)
"Rock borders on metal, held together by the alternate vocals of Billy Corgan, a god of the Nineties reminding us that gods don’t die."
