– Goonja Basu, Staff Writer
With the franchise having a long history of featuring iconic artists, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is in line for having a soulful and hard-hitting soundtrack. The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Black Stars” is chief among them, released in advance of the movie’s premiere later this month.
The Smashing Pumpkins Then
The Grammy-winning group, formed in 1988, is often credited with shaping the alternative genre in music, especially with their early albums like Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Their tumultuous history of disbanding and rebanding, members leaving and new members joining before leaving resulted in their latest album, AGHORI MHORI MEI (2024), the double sequel to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
Bathed in Black Stars
With “Black Stars,” the band drew away from the more modern synth and keys that define their most recent album to return to the more guitar- and drum-heavy sound of their early records. Whether it be luck or more mortal machinations, the producer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping album drew together the three current members of the band and their producer for Siamese Dream, Butch Vig. This sonic return, combined with the sixth movie in a longing running franchise, draws in listeners and viewers alike with an allurement of nostalgia.
Not-so Lackluster Psalms
The content draws inspiration in reference to District 12, with lead singer Billy Corgan opening the song with chorus: “The town and the tombs, a touch of ruin / Where nobody young is staying so foolish / And right where we lied and cried so ghoulish.” If you have not read the books over the past two decades, the author of the series, Suzanne Collins, writes the district to be the most impoverished of the dystopian nation, the underdogs of Panem. The Smashing Pumpkins write the song as an ode to the persevering citizens of the land covered in death. The “black stars” in question reference the everlasting influence of home, regardless of where you end up in life.
The Smashing Pumpkins Now
The band is currently on their “Rats in a Cage” tour, though only for two more weeks. The tour celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, with an accompanying album that was released this past November. The thirtieth anniversary album features thirteen performances of various songs from their original tour for the album in 1996.
