The Edsel. Chevy Chase's talk show. The new Coke.

Now there's another item for the list of Western culture's bad ideas: the pairing of Billy Corgan and the Cure's Robert Smith on the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody."

(ENLARGE)
'The Future Embrace' Billy Corgan
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR
ROCK Billy Corgan "TheFutureEmbrace." Reprise/Martha's Music. 12 tracks. Grade: B+

Their sepulchral intonation of the pop group's 1967 heartbreak ballad almost torpedoes the former Smashing Pumpkins leader's solo debut album. And even though the record has its share of strong moments, that lugubrious indulgence sits there like an open grave on a playground.

Watch your step, though, and you can bask in an often bracing extension of the sweeping, striving rock and emotional vulnerability that made Corgan a beacon of alternative rock in the '90s. The richly produced "TheFutureEmbrace" is a much more developed record than "Mary Star of the Sea," the 2003 album by Corgan's short-lived post-Pumpkins band Zwan.

Here Corgan takes his sonic signatures — the blend of swoon and snarl, the high-pitched whine, the grandly melancholic harmonies and progressions — and adds a big dose of electronics, staking out a quasi-Goth territory with echoes of brisk New Order, burbling Peter Gabriel and shimmering Brian Wilson.

The singer negotiates this terrain with his emotional antennae set on supersensitive, bringing high drama to expressions of longing for connection and salvation. There's a moment or two of alarm and urgency, but less of the rage that colored the Pumpkins' music. In its place, Corgan summons a liturgical grandeur that makes this an almost religious embrace.

— Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times

Billy Corgan's first solo tour comes to EarthLink Live at 8 p.m. Wednesday. The show is sold out. 1374 W. Peachtree St., Atlanta. 404-885-1365, 404-885-1163, www.earthlinklive.com.

Also out today:

"Hurricane" from Halle Berry ex Eric Benet; the self-titled debut from P. Diddy's new rappers and Atlantans Boyz N Da Hood; the self-titled debut from the contestant who claims to have slept with "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul, Corey Clark; "Master of Disaster," roots music from John Hiatt; "Dynamite" from the funky Jamiroquai; "Big Boss Man" from countrified rockers the Kentucky Headhunters; "One Take Radio Sessions," a live EP from Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler; "Classic Moments," a covers album from Patti LaBelle; "Ghetto Bill: The Best Hustler in the Game" from rapper Master P; "Don't Ask Don't Tell," blues-rock from Michelle Shocked.