Patti Smith: Twelve

 |   |  <1 min read

Patti Smith: Twelve

Even in Smith's often unpredictable career this is unexpected: a covers album which includes Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule The World? Its very straight treatment is equally surprising.

You'd expect her to tear through it with righteous indignation but no, she delivers it as the bouncy pop ballad it always was.

But better is elsewhere: her drawling treatment of Hendrix' Are You Experienced? deftly interweaves snippets of other Hendrix lyrics (and guitarist Lenny Kaye peeling off bits of Stars That Play and other Hendrix riffs throughout); Neil Young's Helpless gets an appropriately world-weary reading; George Harrison's Within You Without You drones nicely over 12-string and hand drum; and Nirvana's Teen Spirit is eerily acoustic.

But mostly these are straight-ahead versions: the Stones' Gimme Shelter, Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit, Dylan's Changing of the Guards, Paul Simon'sBoy in the Bubble.

Her band elevate most tracks but Smith's lack of invention or personal spin on the lyrics is disappointing.

There's a lingering feeling that if it weren't Smith you'd hardly continue paying attention. It's like an album of collected B-sides.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Chelsea Wolfe: She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (digital outlets)

Chelsea Wolfe: She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (digital outlets)

Anyone new to this industrial strength, electro-techno Californian – with reference points in Trent Reznor, Bauhaus and recent Gary Numan – might note previous albums included Pain... > Read more

The Tindersticks: The Hungry Saw (Beggars Banquet)

The Tindersticks: The Hungry Saw (Beggars Banquet)

Tindersticks frontman Stuart A Staples -- whose solo album Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04 is excellent -- has a rich and soulful baritone which someone said recently reminded them of a more louche and... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

BOB MARLEY; TALKIN' BLUES: The Rastaman chanting down Babylon in 1973

BOB MARLEY; TALKIN' BLUES: The Rastaman chanting down Babylon in 1973

Shortly after Bob Marley died in May ‘81 a journalist asked former-Wailer Peter Tosh what the passing of this charismatic reggae figure meant. Tosh considered the matter carefully, then... > Read more

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . G.G. ALLIN: Pottymouth not potty-trained

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . G.G. ALLIN: Pottymouth not potty-trained

We might as well get it out of the way quickly: G.G. Allin was a shit-eater. He also threw his excrement -- poos and wees -- at his audiences, punched people in the crowd and told Jerry Springer's... > Read more