JAMES IHA DOT ORG .: News Archive

February 20, 1998, 12:00 am [LICD Review] Dayton Daily News

Source: Dayton Daily News

RECORDINGS ON REVIEW; [CITY Edition 2]
RON ROLLINS, Dayton Daily News. Dayton Daily News. Dayton, Ohio: Feb 20, 1998. pg. 19

Column Name: RECORDINGS ON REVIEW
Section: GO!

Abstract (Document Summary)

This new album comes in from James Iha, so we think the obvious: For the Smashing Pumpkins' guitarist, loyal sidekick to Billy Corgan, you figure you'll get angst-whiny screams, volcanic-meltdown alt-rock. You know, Pumpkin stuff.
Full Text (209 words)
Copyright Dayton Newspapers Inc. Feb 20, 1998

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James Iha

LET IT COME DOWN

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This new album comes in from James Iha, so we think the obvious: For the Smashing Pumpkins' guitarist, loyal sidekick to Billy Corgan, you figure you'll get angst-whiny screams, volcanic-meltdown alt-rock. You know, Pumpkin stuff.

Imagine our surprise.

Iha's debut consists of 11 airy bits that veer from simple bubblegum to gentle pop balladeering a la Freedy Johnston. And more surprisingly, Iha does it without a trace of embarrassment or even the vaguest suggestion that it's a put-on.

Skin of metal, heart of fluff.

Pretty background strings, poofy ooh-ooh harmonies and Iha's own featherweight voice maintain the tone, and lyrically he doesn't try to scrape much deeper than quaint I-love-you, you-love-me lightness.

And what, you wonder, was he thinking? Forget ye not that Iha works for one of the Biggest Egos in Music, and this project could easily come off as something of an artistic repudiation of Corgan's I'm-God-so-rock-with-me corrosiveness. He had to know, too, that most critics who spun this would absolutely trash him.

So if the music gets a little thin near the end, and the album as a whole might be more worth two stars, we'll toss in extra for plain, old-fashioned guts.

Credit: RON ROLLINS