The Smashing Pumpkins – 1991- 2000 – Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD – Tom Kenny, Billy Corgan

The Smashing Pumpkins: 1991-2000 Greatest Hits Video Collection visually charts the progress of the band from grunge rockers to AOR stars. Shot on Super 8, the grainy early videos (“Siva” and “Rhinoceros”) depict the progressive psychedelia of their early sound. Despite the continuation of an alternative music style on Siamese Dream (the group’s first album with Virgin), the videos from this era become more mainstream in a blatant attempt to get MTV airplay. Matching the commercial and accessible style of the album, the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness videos are big-budget numbers. Drawing on their long-standing fascination with 70s youth culture, the “1979” video provides another romanticised depiction of that period, while the awarding-winning “Tonight, Tonight” is a clever remake of Méliès Trip to the Moon. The epic style continues on later videos, with “Perfect” being a sequel to “1979”. Also included is the harrowing short film by Jonas Akerlund, “Try” (a 15-minute extended version of the “Try, Try, Try” video), which follows the last days of a homeless, pregnant young woman. Also included are live performances from their final concert. This is a fitting anthology of both the Pumpkins’ restraint and excess. On the DVD: Due to the extensive number of bonus features available with each video (including commentaries, outtakes and behind the scenes footage), the initial selection process is far from straightforward, which is why the title menu includes a Help option to guide the viewer through the complex procedure. DVD-ROM users can also access exclusive Smashing Pumpkin art.–John Galilee