Kevin Bronson on August 28th, 2020

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The Smashing Pumpkins return to the synth-rock side of their legendary past on two new singles released today, “Cyr” and “The Colour of Love.” Which is strange, since three of the four guys in the new band photo are guitarists, but if Pumpkins’ faithful have learned one thing over the years, it’s to expect the unexpected.

For instance: The band has signed with independent label Sumerian Records, which for more than a decade has been home to heavy rock bands far and wide. A new album, the follow-up to the Rick Rubin-produced “Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1: No Past. No Future. No Sun.,” is said to be in the works featuring founding members Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin, along with longtime guitarist Jeff Schroeder.

The new singles sound like they’re from the dark pop of the ’80s, complete with female backing singers (Katie Cole and Sierra Swan are credited on “Cyr”). Chamberlin’s relentless pounding drives “the Colour of Love.”

Longtime Pumpkins visual collaborator Linda Strawberry is responsible for the “Cyr” video, shot remotely in Chicago and Los Angeles during lockdown. “This is a goth fever dream of pent-up emotion – an artistic visual release attempting to create a momentary escape from the emotional black cloud hanging over all of us this year,” Strawberry says. “A dark seduction filmed in quarantine at a social distance.”

Of the song, Corgan says: “‘Cyr’ is dystopic folly, one soul against the world sort of stuff, set against a backdrop of shifting loyalties and sped up time. To me, it stands as both hopeful and dismissive of what is and isn’t possible with faith.”

||| Watch: The video for “Cyr”

||| Stream: “The Colour of Love”