After releasing their acclaimed album, Monuments to an Elegy, late last year, The Smashing Pumpkins have come out with their video for the single "Run2Me," Vulture reports. Unlike their previous alternative-rock tinged work, the new album focuses heavily on synth-pop and other eclectic styles. However, the video remains true to the long-cherished Smashing Pumpkins aesthetic, with dark, brooding imagery and a theatrical approach to set design and art direction.
The video joins greats like "Tonight, Tonight" and "Today" and will most likely please diehard Pumpkins fans. According to Rolling Stone, this work follows Billy Corgan's eight-hour interpretation of Hermann Hesse's 1922 novel, "Siddhartha. The video was directed by longtime Corgan collaborator, Linda Strawberry.
Strawberry says she sees the song as "full of longing." She said, "The girl in the video is both enlightened and trapped by this theme. The Magician is symbolic of transition and inspiration, while the protagonist in the video is afraid of who she is about to become, she learns, accepts and then lets go of whatever was holding her back." That translates to a break from her gypsy-witch keeper, and a vivid explosion of color.
"Run2Me" is the fourth single from the Smashing Pumpkins' ninth studio album. Monuments to an Elegy was released in December 2014, and follows Teargarden by Kaleidyscope in their recent series of tarot-inspired art. According to IFC, regarding this influence, and the state of the music industry, Corgan said, "99% of the people in the music business now don't have the resources to properly market their music. So if you're gonna market yourself you have to figure out how. We're trying to do it with a wink and a nod. But you have to figure out how to generate energy. You have to register some level of creative integrity. The Pumpkins, as a business, is a creative enterprise that's constantly generating new waves of energy, through music, through cultural f*cking-with... through the Tarot."
Billy Corgan premiered his interpretation of "Siddhartha" at Madame ZuZu's in Highland Park, Illinois.
Corgan and co. released the video for "Run2ME" day ahead of the 20th anniversary of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. This album included many popular Pumpkins' songs and solidified their penchant for theatrics, melodrama, and eclecticism.
