ATUM (synopsis)

ATUM continues the story of the same character who was the subject of 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness ("Zero") and 2000's Machina/The Machines of God ("Glass") – the prior two concept albums by The Smashing Pumpkins. The character is now much older than portrayed in the prior albums, and is now known as "Shiny".

Shiny
Also known as Zero and Glass and now in his 70s. He is a former artist of great fame, before being exiled to space due to his perceived danger to society.

June
passionate life-long admirer of Shiny who is about "one generation" younger than him. Through illicit bribery she has exiled herself into space so that she can be closer to Shiny.

The Seraphim
A choir of Greek celestial angels.

Osirah
A a non-binary, socially aware teen who is part of a hacker group known as 'Hopus Dei'.

Nighthawk
A a young man and Osirah's closest comrade in 'Hopus Dei'.

Hopus Dei
A facile hacking group consisting of Osirah and Nighthawk, among others.

Dr Aesh
A legendary hacker and 60s-esque hippie psychonaut.

The Night Watchman
the only security guard at a long-abandoned amusement park called 'Dream Dream'.

Ruby – the lead dancing robot at Dream Dream's show pavilion, depicted as a 1930s sassy showgirl.

The X+I (pronounced "X and I") – the government authority that oversees all dissonant activity.

Los Machinas – a newly formed Machines of God tribute band.

"Atum"


As this song has no lyrics, it merely sets the mood for the ATUM story. As Corgan describes it, the image is that we (the listener/viewer) see a small, yet beautifully designed spaceship floating in space above Earth. At this point you don't know what it is. The scene then cuts back down to Earth, where we discover it is full of mayhem, mass riots, "descent and unhappiness, and a lot of strife." Next we float back to space, zooming past the spacecraft we saw earlier and on to the "dark side of the moon" (an intentional Pink Floyd reference), where we see pyramids and crystal towers. At this point we are riddled with the sense that the world and everything we know about it isn't as real as we have been led to believe. We then float past Mars and we see the face on Mars as well as more pyramids. Finally, we float toward the Sun and realize it's not the sun we thought it was. This lays the ground for the rest of the story that is to follow. 

"Butterfly Suite"
The scene opens up with a view of two vastly separated spaceships, one to the left, and one to the right. The left spaceship contains the main character, Shiny, whom due to being deemed as a danger to Earth, had been exiled into space. In the right spaceship contains June, a girl who unbeknownst to Shiny is deeply in love with him and has been most of her adult life. Unlike Shiny who was exiled, June willingly bribed her way to go into one of the spaceships so that she could be near Shiny. By this time, both had been in space for roughly 20 years. Every morning, June wakes up and sings her love song to Shiny (which is meant figuratively; space is in a vacuum so sound wouldn't travel). "Butterfly Suite" is the love song she sings, addressing how June has sacrificed most of her adult life to be near Shiny.

Everyone who has been exiled into space is given a code, that when entered into their spacecraft, will send them on "The March of Life". This causes the spacecraft to break orbit and head toward the Sun as a form of "honorable suicide", especially given the overpopulation of Earth in this story.

In the middle of the song during the breakdown is when Shiny punches in his code. After two decades, and not knowing of June's existence at all, Shiny has had enough and decides to take his March of Life. June watches helplessly, recognizing that this is the brutal end of her love affair.

The last portion of the song addresses how June has come to the realization that her worst fears have come true, but yet because of her destiny she must do something. As Corgan explained it, "Shiny is her butterfly that she's chased into the heavens."

"The Good In Goodbye"
In the story of ATUM, "The Good In Goodbye" is sung by seraphim angels. The track begins with a beeping sound effect, which signals that the main character, Shiny, is breaking out of Earth orbit and onto the Sun as a form of noble suicide, known as "The March of Life." The angels are singing to Shiny. He seemingly is doomed to die, but the seraphim are foreshadowing that he is very important in this moment and his destiny isn't over yet. As Shiny passes by the dark side of the moon, he notices unexpected things on its surface, and ultimately realizes that the universe and the world presented to him are not what they seem.