| Freak | |
| Cover: | SP freak cover.jpg |
| Caption: | Promotional CD-R of "Freak" |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | The Smashing Pumpkins |
| Album: | Teargarden by Kaleidyscope |
| Released: | 2010 |
| Recorded: | 2009–2010 |
| Genre: | Alternative rock |
| Length: | 3:51 |
| Label: | Martha's Music / Rocket Science |
| Prev Title: | G.L.O.W. |
| Prev Year: | 2008 |
| Next Title: | Owata |
| Next Year: | 2011 |
"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 EP The 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]