Corgan was deliberately setting out to widen his band's sound and message, explaining that he was not "talking to teenagers anymore. I'm talking to everyone now. It's a wider dialogue. I'm talking to people who are older than me and younger than me, and our generation as well." He said much of the record was "an attempt to go back to what's important at a musical core and build it outward". He would later reflect that he was "stuck on the idea that needed to prove [he was an artist, which is the death knell of any artist".