ATUM

ATUM (pronounced like "Autumn" ), or ATUM: A Rock Opera in Three Acts, is the twelfth studio album and third concept album by The Smashing Pumpkins. It features 33 songs that form a three-act rock opera that is the sequel to 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and 2000's Machina/The Machines of God. The album was announced on September 19, 2022 via Madame ZuZu's newsletter.

The album will be released in three separate installments of 11 songs—ATUM: Act One was released on November 15, 2022, ATUM: Act Two is scheduled for January 31, 2023, and ATUM: Act Three is scheduled for April 21, 2023. A physical box set consisting of all 33 songs, along with a group of 10 additional exclusive songs, is also scheduled for release on April 21, 2023. The 10 additional songs are what the band had originally recorded as the third volume of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series.

Background
Billy Corgan first announced his plans to release a "sequel" concept album to Mellon Collie (1995) and Machina (2000) in October 2020, shortly prior to the release of the band's eleventh studio album CYR in November 2020. Corgan had wanted to do it as early as 2017 or 2018, but with everything going on with the band at the time, including guitarist James Iha being back in the band for the first time in 18 years, and plotting a large tour around 3/4 of the original band being together again, he instead opted on the less-ambitions 8 song album Shiny and Oh So Bright (2018). When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out years later and cancelled much of the bands planned touring, Corgan found himself with a lot of time on his hands and decided to revisit the concept. The album was recorded over a span of 2 years, some of it concurrently with CYR.

Concept and structure
ATUM is a concept album that Corgan describes as a sequel to the band's albums Mellon Collie and Machina. The album tells the story of the same character followed in the prior two albums ("Zero" and "Glass", respectively), with the character now being much older than portrayed in the prior albums, and now known as "Shiny". Similar to the prior albums, the story is described by Corgan as having "...one foot in reality and one foot in a made up world... It’s based on a lot of autobiographical things. But there’s lots of things that are things I’m just interested in exploring that don’t necessarily have anything to do with me."

ATUM will be released in three acts. Each act will consist of 11 songs, and each act will release 11 weeks after the prior. Concurrent to the third act releasing, a physical box set containing all 33 songs, and an additional 10 extra songs, will also be released. The release schedule was designed by Corgan to help listener pace themselves in digesting the large body of work. The 10 songs exclusive to the box set were recorded prior to the album's songs, and is what Corgan described as a psychedelic rock record that was originally intended to be the third volume of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series, with volume 2 being what became CYR.

Sound
Contrary to CYR's electronic and guitar-light sound, Corgan described ATUM as more guitar-driven in its sound. He describes the sound as going "into a million different directions", noting that around a third of the album is "heavy", a third of it sounds "kind of more similar to what [the band has] been doing recently", and a third of it sounds more "esoteric" in advancing the concept/musical aspects of the album.

Release and promotion
The album's title and three part release structure was announced on September 19, 2022. The album's first single, "Beguiled", was released the following day. Corgan will also conduct a weekly podcast called Thirty-Three, where he will play and dissect a new song each week prior to release. ATUM: Act One was released on November 15, 2022, ATUM: Act Two is scheduled January 31, 2023, and ATUM: Act Three is scheduled for April 23, 2023. A physical box-set, consisting of all 33 songs, along with a group of 10 additional exclusive songs, is also scheduled for release on April 21, 2022. Pre-orders for the box set went on sale on Madame Zuzu's website on September 19, 2022, with two options: the black vinyl edition, and the autographed "milky way gray" vinyl edition. Both are machine-numbered, include four LPs, five 7" records of exclusive songs, a special audio story of "Act I/Atum", and a complete lyric book and story narrative. Shipping is expected in April 2023, with no online streaming of the exclusive songs until "at least winter of 2023." The band embarked on the Spirits On Fire tour of North America with Jane's Addiction and Poppy leading up to the album's first release.