Empires

"Empires" is a song by The Smashing Pumpkins from Act II of their 33-song opera and twelfth studio album, ATUM. The song debuted live at the one-off Metro show on September 20, 2022. The studio recording was first released to the public as part of episode 13 of the Thirty-Three podcast. On April 13, 2023, it was released as the third single from ATUM, with a music video directed by Kevin Kerslake – the same director who famously did "Cherub Rock" in 1993.

Synopsis
In the story of ATUM, "Empires" is the song sung by Shiny's "pure personality" as heard through Ruby the robot. Osyraa and Nighthawk are in a field of sunflowers and have set up a live video to broadcast the message from Shiny, knowing it has great significance given the attention it has attracted from the government. The message was projected to the world and specifically the XI. The live stream stays up for only about three minutes before the XI is able to remotely shut it down.

Music video
The music video was released the same day as the single on April 13, 2023. It was directed by Kevin Kerslake – the same director who did "Cherub Rock" nearly 30 years earlier.