Greatest Album of All Time of the Week: Sorry!

Yeah, the first image that came up when I searched for this was a poster instead of the actual album cover, which has the driver running over a ball in the road. On the poster there is no ball, making a nonsense of the album title. Oh well.

Just as my favourite Pink Floyd album is Adam and Eve by Catherine Wheel, so too my favourite Smashing Pumpkins album is Sorry! by, uh, Catherine. No offence to Billy Corgan (who, despite what soybeards will tell you, was probably the 90s' least douchey rockstar), but Sorry! is more consistent than any given Pumpkins album and makes good on the haze-of-noise component of the sound to which the Pumpkins never quite committed to my liking. We can, however, credit the Pumpkins 100% for the template: "Saint" opens with a drum roll just like "Cherub Rock", while "2am" swipes the cinematic string section from "Spaceboy", and the signature squirrelly lead-work that set the Pumpkins leagues apart from the grunge pack can be found throughout (although, again, I prefer Catherine's guitar tone. Sorry!). Moreover, the blend of dazed boyhood whimsy and sneering aggression is no less authentic for being studiously cribbed from the more famous Illinoisans. It's just all so much more interesting than Burt Cobain's one-note whining, it makes you wish more people had ripped off Corgan over Cobain. Catherine is funnier too: the Bee Gees' "Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You" is an inspired cover choice. And Catherine weren't afraid to colour outside of the lines either: "Flawless" anticipates Bri'ish shoegazers Slowdive's diversion into blissed-out country (as Mojave 3) by a cool year. Most importantly, their video for "Saint" was the most 90s video of all time.

Catherine released another album, 1996's Hot Saki and Bedtime Stories, which cut back on the noodling and leaned more into red-cup pop-punk house party vibes, but for my money was somewhat weaker overall. Still, Sorry! stands the test of time as one of the mid-90s' finest gems. Give it a spin, asshole!