Blew Away (version 2)

The story behind

The Smashing Pumpkins crafted Blew Away (version 2) in three minutes and twenty-seven seconds of guitar that seem to breathe. It's not a track that stands out for its thunderous sound, but for how it sounds just before it breaks: there's a moment when the distortion becomes liquid, as if the main riff dissolves in the air before falling back down. The original version — rougher, shorter — already had that magic, but here Butch Vig's production gives it a dirty sheen, as if the song had been recorded in a basement with walls still vibrating. It's not the most polished sound of The Smashing Pumpkins, but it's the one that best captures that mix of contained fury and melancholy that defines them.