Earlier this spring, as you may have heard, Taylor Swift released her latest album The Tortured Poets Department. It’s long. In its final form, Tortured Poets stretches 31 tracks over two hours. At least commercially, that album has been the absolute colossus that everyone predicted, but its reviews haven’t been as strong as the ones that Swift usually gets, and that expansive length is just one of the sticking points. In a new interview, though, the Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan says that Taylor Swift albums should be just as long as she wants.

Billy Corgan knows something about long-ass albums. In 1995, when the Smashing Pumpkins were near their peak, they released the two-hour colossus Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. Last year, the band came out with the final version of their three-part rock opera Atum, which stretched out to 138 minutes in its totality. So it’s not exactly a surprise to see Corgan speaking in favor of long records, but it’s a little eyebrow-raising when he calls her “one of the most gifted pop artists of all time” — not because he’s wrong but because Corgan’s generation of alt-rockers isn’t always so effusive about Swift.

Right now, Billy Corgan has a lot going on, including a pro-wrestling reality show and an upcoming stadium tour with Green Day. To promote a Smashing Pumpkins show in Dublin, Corgan did a recent interview with The Irish Times. In the story, Corgan talks about getting to know the late Dublin native Sinêad O’Connor, who lived with one of Corgan’s friends outside Chicago when she was going through a difficult period in her life. At a different point in the story, the conversation turns to Taylor Swift, and he has this to say:

Let’s go back to Sinéad for a second. Now that Sinéad’s gone, would it be a bad thing if somebody turned up tomorrow and said, “Hey, I just found this tape, and there’s enough for 20” — or 30 or 50 — “Sinéad songs.” Would that be a bad thing? Taylor Swift is one of the most gifted pop artists of all time. How is it a bad thing that she’s releasing more music? I can’t follow that … You can go on Spotify and just skip it.

People complained about the length of my last album, Atum. I thought, Well, just go make your own playlist. Just listen to the record one time — rag over the six or 10 songs you like and make your own record. Why is this such a strange concept? Have some sense of proportionality. This hyperbolic thing — “They ruined Star Wars. My God, this is all too much for me to process” — it’s all a bit childish

You can read the full Irish Times profile here.