The key to decoding the heavily textured synth/guitar interplay of "Embrace" (and compelling cuts such as "All Things Change," "Walking Shade" and "Pretty, Pretty Star") lies in Corgan's not-so-distant past, when he toured the States with legendary New Order as side axeman.
Sublimating his bandleader ego, he hid in the shadows, beneath that same floppy Cubs cap, and happily strummed what he was told to — even historical tracks from the group's earlier incarnation as Joy Division.
Recalling a gig high point, when vocalist Bernard Sumner prodded his protege to sing lead on Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," Corgan suddenly rolls up his sleeve, points to his arms, and marvels, "See? here they come — goosebumps! I get goosebumps just thinking about it. As a musician, that sound, that heaviness, when those three (New Order) guys play together? It's like Picasso territory."
Scholarly Corgan, now 38, suddenly found himself the student.
What did he learn from New Order? Two things, he says. "One is that true power is rhythmic, it's not volume. And the rhythmic relationship is internal — that's something that all the early blues guys like Robert Johnson understood. And secondarily, where I'd always figured New Order were really pretentious and drew their whole sound out as some Bauhaus concept, no — they are energy whores. You show them where the energy goes, they will follow it. When I played with'em, they hadn't played Joy Division songs in 22 years, and I said, 'Why did you choose to play these songs again?' And they said, 'We just felt like it.' They didn't intellectualize the decision; they were just chasing down the rabbit hole."
Consequently, Corgan set several conscious parameters for the "Embrace" sessions. He used only one guitar per song, and swore off all live drums (even Chamberlin was forced to used synthesized skins).
But New Order had left its mark. "Every time I came to a decision where it was intellect versus energy," he recalls, "I chose energy, even if my intellect disagreed with it. Which was very hard for me, because I can intellectually override any concept. If we'd put one track up and say, 'I really like the way that sounds,' then we'd hear the other track and say, 'But that feels better,' we always went with the 'feels better.' Even though I'd really wanted the other one to work."
