Jimmy Chamberlin Complex
Life Begins Again
(Sanctuary Records)
By: Geoff Keston - ModernRock.com
Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin's biography reads like classic rock star tragedy: he was addicted to heroin, his friend died of an overdose, and then alternative megastar Smashing Pumpkins exiled him only to later rehire him. Chamberlin's new album, Life Beings Again, emerges from these dark days with confidence, poise, and even grace.
The album mixes slow burning fusion jazz pieces with songs that seem to have been recovered from a time capsule buried during the peak of Smashing Pumpkins' career.
Like all good jazz artists, Chamberlin shares the spotlight with his supporting cast, giving them space to improvise. This is not a vanity project, and Chamberlin has the confidence to give up control. The album is as much his doing as it is that of his collaborator, songwriter Billy Mohler.
The pressure to step out of a former band's shadow burdens most solo artists, more painfully when the solo artist was a virtually anonymous subordinate to the band's leader, as Chamberlin was to media darling Billy Corgan. Life Begins Again finds its brilliance in Chamberlin's freedom from these burdens. He makes the music he wants to make, never fighting against his past, never straining to prove anything to anyone.
Chamberlin's past does not haunt his album, but it is present in it. Chamberlin wrote the lyrics for all of the songs except for "Lullabye". On "Loki Cat," Corgan makes an appearance as vocalist and sings lyrics that Chamberlin offers as a sobering look back and hopeful look forward:
"Who are we to complain/When God takes things away?"
"I found no angels/I found myself"
After the Smashing Pumpkins disbanded in 2000, Chamberlin and Corgan teamed up to form Zwan, a one-album wonder of alternative guitar rock. The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex might be another one-off, with Chamberlin moving on in a restless search for the right avenue for expression. If Life Begins Again is all that the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex gives us, then so be it. Jimmy Chamberlin himself is here to stay.
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