Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	70/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Consequence of Sound	B–
DIY
The Guardian
NME	7/10
Pitchfork Media	6.0/10
Rolling Stone
Uncut	8/10

Monuments to an Elegy is the ninth studio album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released on December 5, 2014. Band leader Billy Corgan has noted that—similar to the band's previous release, Oceania—the album is a part of the ongoing project, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, but sold poorly compared to the band's previous albums, peaking at number 33 in the U.S. and number 59 in the U.K., thus making it their lowest charting album in the both regions since their debut, Gish (1991).

On March 25, 2014, the band announced that they had signed a record deal with record label BMG. The band's next two albums would be part of the deal: Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night.

On April 29, The Smashing Pumpkins' frontman Billy Corgan stated that the band had chosen the top songs for the album, and that they would be spending the following three days on drum tracking, vocal arrangements, lyrics and tweaking of the songs. Corgan described the album's planned sound as being "guitars, guitars, guitars, and more guitars; but more so on the epic side of things than say, grossly metallic."

On May 7, it was announced that Tommy Lee, founding member of Mötley Crüe, would be playing drums on all nine of the album's tracks. According to Corgan, Jeff Schroeder is currently the only person apart from himself officially in the Smashing Pumpkins, and that Mike Byrne and Nicole Fiorentino are no longer working with the group in any capacity.

On July 21, Billy Corgan indicated that recording on Monuments to an Elegy had finished. Mixing for the album commenced on August 18. The album's final release date was announced as December 9.

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Wikipedia