The sheer amount of non-album tracks the 1990s version of the Smashing Pumpkins would record and release was already pretty evident by the time of their second album, so the follow-up to Siamese Dream was a stopgap catchall just to take some of that into account. (The cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” became a radio single in its own right.) There’s no real rhyme or reason to Pisces Iscariot beyond clearing a lot of the decks, whether previously unreleased or not, but having the slow burn epic of “Starla” and the winsome James Iha-sung “Blew Away” among others to hand helped show the group’s increasing range.

– Ned Raggett