"Entertainment Weekly" critic David Browne praised the band for living up to industry expectations of being the "next Nirvana" and compared "Siamese Dream" favorably to Nirvana's "Nevermind", concluding: "In aiming for more than just another alternative guitar record, Smashing Pumpkins may have stumbled upon a whole new stance: slackers with a vision." Critic Simon Reynolds disagreed; he wrote in his review for "The New York Times" that "fuzzed-up riffs and angst-wracked vocals are quite the norm these days, and Smashing Pumpkins lacks the zeitgeist-defining edge that made Nirvana's breakthrough so thrilling and resonant." Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice" cited "Geek U.S.A." and "Today" as highlights while noting the record's strength is "the sonics"; he later rated the album with a . "Siamese Dream" earned the Smashing Pumpkins their first Grammy Award nominations. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance, and the group was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards.