Beguiled

"Beguiled" is the debut single from The Smashing Pumpkins' twelfth studio album, ATUM. The song debuted via a TikTok live stream on September 19, 2022. The single and music video were released to streaming services the follow day.

Beguiled is sung from the standpoint of the authoritarian … It sounds kind of like a classic metal chorus, like Priest or something like, but it's actually the authoritarian figures singing. He's saying, ‘Trust the message.’ At the height of the pandemic, we kept saying trust the science. Having been in public life for 35 years, anytime anyone asks you to trust them, that's when I run. So it's a little bit like somebody saying, if you just have faith in what we stand for, everything will be fine. The song achieved great airplay success in the United States on the Billboard Charts, reaching number 7 on the Rock Airplay chart – the band's first top 10 hit since 2007's "Tarantula". In January 2023, the song also hit the top 20 of the Alternative Airplay chart, reaching number 12.

"Beguiled" was performed live for the first time on September 20, 2022 at the Metro, Chicago. The song was performed by the band on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on September 22, 2022.

Background and recording
The single was the first to be released from the upcoming studio album ATUM: A Rock Opera in Three Acts, a three-part concept album that acts as a sequel to 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, 2000's Machina/The Machines of God and Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music.

The song is sung from the perspective of the Authoritarian of the story. In a September 20, 2022 interview with Kerrang, Billy Corgan described the Authoritarian as relaying propaganda to the masses "'Trust the message'. At the height of the pandemic, we kept saying trust the science. Having been in public life for 35 years, anytime anyone asks you to trust them, that's when I run. So it's a little bit like somebody saying, if you just have faith in what we stand for, everything will be fine."

The guitar riff for "Beguiled" came to fruition very early in the demo sessions for ATUM. In the same interview with Kerrang magazine, Corgan described how the riff for the song came about and how the band in a rare move never changed the song from its initial inception, "...we never changed the tempo, which is very, very rare. Almost always you speed things up or whatever. But there's something about it being so slow that we just never changed. And that's probably the only thing on the entire record that didn't go through some sort of metamorphosis."

Music video
A live performance video debuted on a TikTok stream on September 19, 2022, and was formally released the following day. The video was directed by long-time band creative partner and Creative Director Linda Strawberry.

Similarly to the music video for "Ava Adore", the music video for "Beguiled" was shot in one take, although it was streamed directly live over TikTok as opposed to filmed and edited post-production. The video features a mix of live band performance, performance artists, dancers and various friends and family members of the band such as Chloe Mendel her and Corgan's children, Frank Catalano, and members of NWA.

The edited version of the live performance music video premiered on YouTube on September 20, 2022 and serves as the song's official music video.

Critical reception
Upon release the song received generally positive reviews. Writing for Billboard, Gil Kaufman called the song a "chugging, Black Sabbath-like single". In a NME review for the song, writer Tom Skinner described the song previewing the upcoming album as "the swaggering, all-guns-blazing 'Beguiled', which sees the Pumpkins return to their gritty, guitar-led sound." Guitar World writer Michael Astley-Brown said of the track; "Beguiled is a four-to-the-floor riffer that rarely lets up in its barrage of palm-muted chugs" and that it was "in the vein of classic Pumpkins cut Zero."

Synopsis
Within the story of ATUM, "Beguiled" takes place at Dr. Aesh's safehouse. Osirah and Nighthawk are sitting in the living room formulating a plan on when to leave, when Dr. Aesh interrupts them to say that he revealed their location to the X+I and that they are currently waiting outside the safehouse. "Beguiled" is Dr. Aesh reciting the values and propaganda the XI have been feeding the general public. Dr. Aesh feels as if he is doing the right thing for society and them; as the X+I have promised Dr. Aesh that Osirah and Nighthawk will not not be harmed or spend the rest of their lives in prison. Osirah and Nighthawk feel utterly betrayed as Ruby the robot sits emotionless. Nighthawk decides, against Osirah's wishes, to turn himself in. He walks outside and around the house with his hands up. Through the exterior cameras, Osirah and Dr. Aesh watch in horror as Nighthawk is killed immediately by the XI.