Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music is the sixth studio album by the American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. It was released for free on the Internet on September 5, 2000. Plans for a standard physical release, bundled with the first part Machina/The Machines of God, were revealed to happen sometime in 2013, but was postponed due to legal setbacks. In an Instagram Q&A in 2018, the band's frontman, Billy Corgan, revealed that all legal issues had been resolved. The two albums are planned to be remastered and released as a deluxe reissue; however, no release date has been announced.
The album itself, a double LP, was packaged with three EPs full of B-sides and alternate versions. The album's artwork was created by Carlos Segura. Both Machina albums are loose concept albums telling the story of "a rock star gone mad". Machina II was the last Smashing Pumpkins studio album until the band reformed in 2006, their final studio album to feature guitarist James Iha until his return in 2018, as well as the final album to feature their original line-up, as bassist D'arcy Wretzky departed during the recording of both Machina albums and didn't return when the band reformed.
Background
Near the conclusion of the Machina sessions, it was Billy Corgan's wish to release a double album of material, but Virgin Records was unwilling to do so following the disappointing sales of Adore. After the release and poor sales of the single-disc Machina/The Machines of God, Corgan then wanted to release the second Machina album separately, but Virgin declined this as well. The band nonetheless returned to the Chicago Recording Company in July 2000 to finish what would become Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, which was subsequently released on Corgan's own Constantinople Records label. Only twenty-five vinyl copies were made, and were given mostly to friends of the band in addition to radio station Q101. A few of the 25 copies were shipped to prominent fans in the online community with instructions to rip and redistribute the album on the Internet free of charge. Because of this, all publicly available digital copies of the album are vinyl rips.
Promotion
The Pumpkins performed a track from the album ("Cash Car Star") on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which also ended up being the band's final television appearance until their 2007 revival. A previous live performance of the song, in an earlier and slightly different-than-final-version form, had been broadcast as a portion of Kiss' 1998 Psycho Circus Halloween special, where The Smashing Pumpkins served as the opening act.
Musical style
The A.V. Club stated that Machina II reflects "Corgan's obsession with dream-pop, Cure- and Depeche Mode-styled synth-goth, and glam-tinged heavy metal." The album picks up the thematic elements of "Glass and The Machines of God" started in Machina/The Machines of God. Songs like "Glass' Theme", "Cash Car Star", "Home", and the B-side "Speed Kills" are related to Corgan's story. The first three songs ("Glass' Theme", "Cash Car Star", and "Dross"), considerably more intense than much of the Pumpkins' other releases, are a hearkening to the earlier, famous Smashing Pumpkins sound, blending dream pop with arena rock, while "Let Me Give the World to You" has a melodic, radio-friendly sound. "Real Love", which would later appear on the band's Rotten Apples, has a sound reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine. "Home" has been called "simply gorgeous" and compared to U2. The album's closing track, "Here's to the Atom Bomb", has been compared favorably to the Pumpkins' biggest hit, "1979".
Reception
Because it was not released conventionally, few professional reviews of the album were published, but those that surfaced were generally positive. The A.V. Club called it an "artistic high" for the band. Pitchfork opined that while the band sounded "energized and at a creative peak", "there isn't really any new ground broken here, but the band revisits nearly every style they've adopted over the years", ultimately concluding that listeners should "take this as a proper farewell to the Smashing Pumpkins" and that "it's a nice album to remember them by". AllMusic stated that "As a high-class artifact and a gift to a loyal fan base, Machina II is a winner." The Michigan Daily also published a review calling the music "some of the best Pumpkins material to date".