The Smashing Pumpkins Announce Rock Opera

The Smashing Pumpkins have today detailed their new album while announcing a podcast and dropping a new single.

The band’s twelfth studio album will take the form of a three-act rock opera album titled ATUM (pronounced Autumn), which will drop next April following a drip-feed single release over several months via Billy Corgan’s new podcast, Thirty-Three With William Patrick, the first two episodes of which are out now.

As detailed in the album’s official announcement:

Each act of eleven songs will come out every eleven weeks on digital streaming platforms to coincide with the podcast. Act 1 on November 15, 2022.  Act 2 on January 31, 2023.  Act 3 along with a special edition boxset featuring all 33 album tracks plus 10 additional unreleased songs, will be released on April 21, 2023.

Penned over the past four years, ATUM serves as a sequel to 1995’s Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina/Machine Of God, and the first taste of what to expect is new track Beguiled.

The band will give the track its live debut this Friday via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon following its music video premiering on TikTok today.

The first episode of the podcast features David Bowie’s esteemed long-time pianist Mike Garson as a special guest, with more to be “revealed soon”, while episodes one and two showcase the album’s title track and Butterfly Suite.

Each week, Corgan will take a deep dive into each song as they’re released, while also discussing a ‘classic’ track and the band’s history.

Smashing Pumpkins will embark on a massive US arena tour with Jane’s Addiction in October that wraps in late November – with any luck, we’ll see them over in Australia around the album’s release next April.