"Freak" (also titled
as "Freak U.S.A.") is the second single from The Smashing Pumpkins's 34-track music project, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, and the first song released for the second accompanying EPThe Solstice Bare. Like all other songs on the EP, "Freak" was released as a free download on their official website.[1] The song was first played live on July 24, 2009, at the first Spirits in the Sky show in memoriam of Sky Saxon.[2] It was performed live by the Pumpkins throughout their 2010 tours.[3]
Spin praised the song, noting that "the catchy chorus of bright guitars and cheerful na na na na nas recall his short-lived pop-rock side-project Zwan; the heavy, distorted bass lines revisit the goth-rock moments of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness; and his lyrics are all early-Pumpkins."[4]PopMatters's reviewed that "Freak" "largely explores and builds on The Smashing Pumpkins’ earlier, mid-1990s sound while also very subtly hinting at the newly pointed and cultish, lysergic musical atmosphere."[5]
