Is Jane a Woman? Is she a Siamese Twin?

Well, here's one thing that Smashing Pumpkins and Lambchop have in common: at times, I've overdosed on each album. In the first case, I blame myself. In the second, I blame Andrew. My recovery in either case, however, has been complete, and now I find all sorts of reasons to like each of these records--to begin with, the slightly nasal voice of Billy Corgan and the lounge-lizard falsetto of Kurt Wagner. But these two albums also quiet and swell with a winning variety, and little nuggets of sound and lyric crop up in each. And each also keeps its best for last, I think. The title track of Is a Woman is my favorite on the album, with its reggae lilt and the imperative that works its way into the chorus ("Write this down"). Likewise, the end of Siamese Dream stands out. Don't get me wrong--I warmed to "Today" and "Disarm" all over again--but the last few tracks of the album fit in all kinds of dynamic stuff: piano ballad stuff sits right next to the closest thing to heavy metal, in the way of guitar solos, etc., that I like (sorry, MVB).

That said, I find Is a Woman a more consistently pleasing record. It sashays and slackens and trumps up energy in all the right places. It habitually works in phrases that tickle my fancy, the most memorable of which is "chicken of the sea." So I'm choosing it.

That's right: Is a Woman wins. And y'all should know that Andrew did everything he could to make sure that I gave Siamese Dream the benefit of the doubt: he air-guitared up a storm, windmilling often, and called one track "epic." And he overplayed Is a Woman for about three months before the Music Death Match began. But it just wasn't enough.