Zwan's 'Mary Star of the Sea' at 20 - underrated classic or one of Billy Corgan's missteps?

January 27, 2023

Zwan–the short-lived band fronted by The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan that also featured Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarists David Pajo (Slint, Papa M) and Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Shunk), and bassist Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle, now of Pixies)–released their sole album Mary Star of the Sea 20 years ago this Saturday (1/28). It’s always been a divisive album in Billy Corgan’s catalog (Pitchfork trashed it in a 4.8 review, whereas other contemporary reviews like SPIN and NME were more favorable), and this anniversary has a lot of people talking about the album, re-evaluating it, debating it. Stereogum and Uproxx both published retrospectives arguing that it’s “probably better than you remember” and “Billy Corgan’s lost classic,” respectively, and a lot of other loud Zwan cheerleaders have since weighed in, while others have taken the opportunity to double down on their hatred. (Personally, I think the Zwan album is great!) It’s also not on streaming services, but you can hear it on YouTube or break out your old CD player to revisit it for the occasion. We’ve rounded up some tweets weighing in on the Great Zwan Debate of 2023, along with the album’s two music videos. Dive in below. Where do you stand on Zwan in 2023?

Zwan was / is heavily underrated

Also in high school people told me I looked like Paz Lenchantin, which made me REALLY happyhttps://t.co/6xTi05WJO1

— Rachel Brodsky (@RachelBrods) January 26, 2023

20 years ago this week, the one and only album by the ill-fated Billy Corgan-led supergroup Zwan was released. It's not currently available on streaming platforms. I wrote about their drama-filled backstory, and how that one record is actually really good. https://t.co/8ZjbMBEDDG

— Steven Hyden (@Steven_Hyden) January 23, 2023

New Indiecast! Today, after @Steven_Hyden and I talk about new Maneskin and White Reaper albums and a very old Zwan album to ask…is rock and/or roll back? https://t.co/24L2XIjAXc

— Ian Cohen (@en_cohen) January 27, 2023

A trip down memory lane with @burn_amb, the only person on Earth who disdains the Pumpkins but loves Zwan https://t.co/Ekff18f2NI

— Chris DeVille // chrisdeville.bsky.social (@chrisdeville) January 26, 2023

As a long time Zwan hater I listened to this recently after some mutuals explained how much they liked it – it’s not as bad as younger me remembered – this is a good read https://t.co/5AZRB44RaR

— Drew Beringer (@drewberinger) January 23, 2023

I have never given the tiniest fuck about Smashing Pumpkins. They are 100% Not For Me. But I wrote about Mary Star Of The Sea, the only album by Billy Corgan's short-lived and much better band Zwan, for @stereogum:https://t.co/3eIJWHSqdW

— burning ambulance (sign up for the newsletter) (@burn_amb) January 26, 2023

had a little family emergency early this week. been offline. i'm back. replugging the ZWAN 20th anniversary piece from my site. https://t.co/7DGx0kewLJ

— Matthew Sigur (@MatthewSigur) January 26, 2023

I’m here for the Zwan revival https://t.co/Ek9YR3Huar

— Matt Jarrard (@mattjarrard) January 23, 2023

Saw this and just unearthed my equally offline review of the Zwan album from my college newspaper. Gotta say, lede holds up. pic.twitter.com/vTB4dvQpzb

— Joey Arak (@jarak) January 23, 2023