2003, What a weird and awesome time this was. So The Smashing Pumpkins release their final album, Machina II free to fans and then abruptly implode. Billy immediately forms a new supergroup with Matt Sweeney (Chavez), David Pajo (Slint), Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle), and retains Jimmy Chamberlin. If you fast forward a few years then you'll realize that ultimately this could have been any other post-Machina II SP album, right? So could Billy's solo LP. All the later "band" albums are just Billy - and sometimes Jimmy! But perhaps the new band name was out of respect for new celebrity bandmates. At any rate, Zwan was definitely a big inspirational shot in the arm for Billy at the time, and much of this album feels like it could have been happily at home on Gish, Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie. Lead single "Honestly" is a good example with its bright uplifting tone. Don't get me wrong, I was a big fan of the Adore/Machina era - but this is great change of pace. Then there's the sprawling epic "Jesus, I." My absolute favorite song here is "Yeah!" - weak title aside, it feels like it takes the best parts of SP's radio friendly arena rock, jangly shoegaze aspirations and snarky cynicism and snowballs it all into "what I want you can't fucking kill." It's just great. It's unfortunate that Zwan was so short lived; and even more unfortunate that so much material remains shelved: they were already working on an acoustic album under their Djali Zwan pseudonym before this one was even released (see the bonus DVD included in deluxe editions for previews) and also recorded a bunch of material for the officially soundtrack-less movie Spun. But after one album Zwan would breakup, Billy would record a solo album (with Jimmy) and then relaunch the SP name (with Jimmy). Seriously, just a weird and awesome time.