Gish. The place where it started. The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is one of my favorite albums of all time. Gish, on the other hand, is the place where the Smashing Pumpkins made their first waves. It is a harder album and, in some ways, a darker album. At least, the sounds here are harsher, and I have to be in a specific mood to listen to it.

Although Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness also leans into hard rock sounds, it also has a much dreamier tone to it. The concept itself–an examination of a man through a day and night–is also really cool, and lends itself to the story being told across the many songs. Gish is a much shorter album, and it leans into the same angst while covering them in static feedback.

The highlight of the album is the concluding song, “Daydream.” I first came across the song through Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Charlie’s mixtape includes the song, and–while it took me some time to get a feel for it–I was enamored.