Reviews (page 6 of 12)
Some interesting/good moments and at times I loved her voice. Other times I thought it was just awful and headache inducing noice. Birdland? What the shit is that? I liked Break It Up and really cool guitar tone…but the end goes into nonsense and turns me off. 2.25
I'll give Patti Smith props for being a punk pioneer but this album has never resonated with me. Rounding up based on influence. 2.75/5
There’s no denying the influence or the conviction behind Horses. Patti Smith sounds fearless, defiant, and fully in control of her art. But for all its power and poetry, it’s not something I connect with deeply. Some tracks land beautifully, others feel more like endurance tests. I respect it more than I love it — a touchstone album, but not one I’ll return to often.
Raw, progressive, energetic and ahead of its time.
Not great. Not enough happening outside of the spoken word parts to justify the song lengths. Gloria is a good song, but the rest is immensely forgettable and not anything I wanna listen to ever again.
Very great Art Rock and Proto-Punk album. Every song here is very good I just don't find much replay value.
This album is decent. Not amazing. There are some cool tracks on here, no doubt. I loved Free Money, great song. Admittedly, Birdland was an epic tune, even if I didn’t care for it. Gloria was also good. But a few others were not as great. Land in particular, I found pretty derivative. Still, there’s a cool vibe about this album and Smith’s voice is great. Nothing I’d come back to over and over again though.
I wanted to love this but I didn't connect with it
Awesome
Decent.
Not bad, not totally my thing.
man new york rocks... shout out john cale
Funny, I was familiar with "Jesus died for his own sins, but not mine" from "Asylum" on the Crass album "The Feeding of the 5,000", but never knew it was actually inspired by Patti Smith's opening song on "Horses". That said, I actually never listened to nor had this album in my collection. I had (of course) heard of this album, but somehow, never came to listen to it. Although I would classify it rather proto-punk than punk proper, it absolutely helped create the blueprint for what punk could be, beyond just fast/loud/aggressive. Also, I can see how this album influenced later New Wave, such as Siouxie and The Banshees and other female punk acts like Nina Hagen or The Slits. It's undeniably arty, with its (spoken word) poetic lyrics, but also have some raw edges, primarily due to Lenny Kaye's rudimentary guitar work, which I quite liked. 4/5
An album I already know and love. Brilliant excuse to have a full length listen. Patti Smith owns a special section of my heart. Her music really makes me feel free and wild😝
I can't recognise a (proto-) punk. For years, I underestimated Patti Smith and tended to ignore her. She makes great music. This album is also fantastic. I think I'll listen to it again. 4/5
Fucking terrible.
Not terrible but had a decent amount of skips
One of the extremely rare 5 stars I give out and an all time great debut album. I've wanted to see her ever since this album was released and I finally get to in November. And to make it even better, it's the 50th anniversary of the album and she is performing the whole album with the original band.
Not really my jam. I can see why people think it's exceptional, though.
Definitely different. Were some parts that were quite decent, but mostly got hung up around the disturbing lyrics about splitting someone’s head up and crawling inside a skull. The sometimes erratic singing didn’t really suit me either.
I actually did see Patti Smith at a music festival back in 2010. I think I convinced a friend to go see her with me since she was “a legend.” The concert wasn’t particularly good, and I realized I didn’t actually know any of her songs. My knowledge of Patti Smith hasn’t really increased since then. I mostly know her as the original writer of “Because the Night.” I do recognize this album cover, though. So, how was it? I think it has a lot of confidence and vision, she clearly set out to do something different. The opening line of the album, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine,” immediately gets you hooked. The whole first track is by far the best one; the way it builds up, paired with her great vocals, makes it a very memorable listen. The rest of the album doesn’t really keep up, though. I wasn’t particularly a fan of the spoken-word parts, nor of the covers. I’m going to settle on a 3. I get why this album became famous, it certainly isn’t bland, and there are some good tracks here and there. Oh, and the CD version includes a great live cover of “My Generation.”
Ok 2.5
Yow, I didn’t get that one. I can certainly hear the velvet revolver sound. Not something my ear could make sense of.
Wow! This blew me away. Truly glad I did hear this before I died.
Really poetic writing.
Oozing with emotion and grit. Infectiously energetic, super clever songwriting style.
Uneventful
Very good, reminds me of Lou Reed. 4.49 stars.
Not bad but not my favorite
I enjoyed listening to this; it instantly got me thinking how many stars to award. Gloria is a great opener and had me thinking this could easily be a 4 star outing but for the most part, the album didn’t quite grab me in the same way. It wasn’t until the penultimate track that I found the best song on the album, Land, which elevated it towards those 4 stars once more but on reflection, whilst this brings a lot of punk spirit and is clearly influential, I’m giving this the 3 star treatment with a note to return and see how I find it next time.
Had to skip through songs. The vocals rubbed me the wrong way. I think the lyrics were interesting, but I didn't want to listen to them.
Quintessential 70’s sound. Not my favorite and wanted to skip the vocals but I can see the appeal.
I was suprised by Patti. Very intense songs, but some worked very well. Favorites are Gloria: and Horses:
Not a fan
Kul plate.
yessssssssss
heard this before some time ago Gloria - 5/5 Redondo Beach - 4/5 Birdland - 3/5 Free Money - 5/5 Kimberly - 5/5 Break It Up - 5/5 Land - 5/5 Elegie - 5/5 Average score: 4.6/5 (rounding up)
Unique. Spoken sections in many songs. Poetic. I understand why people dig her.
This album was already in my library so I heard it before I died and this list. It rocks.
First time listener. It was good.
thrilling, infuriating, baffling - all of the above, but you will definitely have a sonic reaction to Horses. No 3-stars sitting on the fence here. I'm not quite all in but can imagine seeing her live around this time would be a total five, but it's a pretty wild ride, as much MC5 as Pistols (not really Pistols at all). One of the great debuts.
Patti Smith makes me feel strong. Incredible lyrics, this fury inside her, she is so fucking cool. The world she paints in Horses is entirely her own, confident, and integrity. Psychedelic, bluesy, but the highlight is her. Her voice is not traditionally great but that's not the point. The point is her delivery, half spoken-word and half singing.
1001 Albums Challenge (20/1001) 1. Gloria (5/5) 2. Redondo Beach (5/5) 3. Birdland (5/5) 4. Free Money (5/5) 5. Kimberly (5/5) 6. Break It Up (5/5) 7. Land (5/5) 8. Elegie (5/5) Total (5/5)
Heard this album a million times but only today for the first time I noticed she ends this album with a line from one of my very favorite Jimi Hendrix songs, 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be), "It's too bad that our friends can't be with us today." Prior to noticing that, I was thinking about how it's the covers Gloria and Land Of 1000 Dances where she and the band really shine. Creativity takes many forms and in purely sonic terms this album can underwhelm but if you can appreciate it for what it is, its peaks are brilliant. I love this album and I think people will be talking about the scene in New York she helped to define for a long time to come and she was a meaningful part of that. But also bigger than a scene, in terms of rock n roll, she was a musical Magellan, charting the course forward out of Altamont, leading us ultimately in to Never Mind The Bollocks. God bless Patti Smith! More than a national treasure, she deserves a special designation from the UN, like Stonehenge.
This is possibly the first time I've ever listened to this album, despite knowing for many years that it's high up in the pantheon of greatest albums of all time. "Gloria" starts it all with quite a bang, and probably ranks up there as one of the great cover songs (if it even qualifies as such); "Free money" continues the assault quite well. In some ways, though, it feels like "Birdland" and "Land" best represent Smith's vision of marrying poetry and (rock) music, and while I'm not sure I could say I particularly enjoyed either track as much as many people have, they feel pretty unique and challenging, especially for their time. I'm sure I approached this album in a more reverent way than I would have if I had never heard of it, but I can see why it's pretty seminal in the annals of rock/punk/music.
This album was on permanent repeat when I was 16 in 1980, though the heavier "Radio Ethiopia" will always be my favorite p. smith album. Finally, a female role model who wasn't conventionally pretty, cute, sexy and who didn't seem at all concerned about it. She had more interesting things to do, such as blend French surrealism with Motown and her poetry and perform with her band. Shame on this list for including only one of her albums while having multiples of (looking at the Bs) Beck, Belle & Sebastian, Bjork, Blur, Tim Buckley, and Kate Bush. List dude's the kind of wanker she didn't give a shit about.
Nice
Exhausting but pretty interesting. Need to be in a specific mindset to enjoy this though.
Pre: Don't know this album at all, is it rock, or like Kate bush and artsy? Post: it was both, artsy rock n roll with Jim Morrison influences
My girlfriend works next to where Patti Smith lives and she’s rude as hell so two stars sorry.
I love her !!!
weird
Sometimes revolutionary music is trapped in its era.
Quite cool
Another album that continues to grow on me. Patti is like the grandmother of punk 🤘 Favorite track: Gloria
Stupendous album with some beautiful songs on it.
interessante
Rating: 2.7 I liked it okay. Probably edgy for the time but just about put me to sleep in this current timeline. Not sure why this album is considered top 10-20 all time in many circles.
I just did not enjoy this album. Maybe I’m missing something? But the music did not grab me and I just found it a bit strange.
I'd never really listened to Patti Smith before but I liked this a lot. A little punky, a little Doors-y.
Não é um álbum que eu vou escutar novamente. As músicas só ficam meio legais no final; a voz tremula com certeza não me agradou. As que eu achei razoáveis: "Break It Up" e "Land" (se ela não prolongasse muito as músicas, ia ser perfeito).
Oh yessss Patrizia Schmid! S best album vo ihre, het mi richtig zum wiehere bracht! Im Galopp zu dene 4 geile Hengst!
Puvv gar nüd speziells gsi oder. Vlt biz zu rockig patti 3 hamburger mit patties grrn
Easy zum lose, als Hintergrundmusig. aber jz nid mi lieblingsmusig / style
Nice proto punk. Love the opening track. But not that many good songs I would want to hear again. Don’t particularly dig her voice.
I wanted to like this more than I did.
The vibe is impeccable. Patti Smith is one of the coolest people alive, and the highlights are brilliant. It does get a little samey, and her lyrics don't have the verbosity of a Dylan or Bowie. She's more like Cohen - takes some simplistic ideas and explores them as far as she can. I was feeling like a strong 3, just because I was craving for something a bit different, and then Elegie provided that, so a 4.
Loved it!
Легенда. И альбом отличный. Лучшая песня - Gloria: In Excelsis Deo.
First time listening to Patti Smith properly. Lots of artists talk the influence of the great Patti Smith. Wasn't amazed by it. However may grow after a few more listens
I get what Patti Smith is going for but her voice is just annoying to me. I respect the attempt though, it's something different. Just not for me. 4.75/10 (2.375/5)
O album horses é como realmente cavalos correndo em um largo campo. Mas cavalos confusos. Alguns muito rápidos e alguns bem perdidos e desconexos do grupo.
que desgosto ouvir esse album
Oh, I get why some people don't like this. But those people and I respond to music very differently. I loved it. It weaves a spell. Fascinating, authentic, and cool as.
Good stuff
Sounded pretty unique for it's time, Gloria was the star by far, the rest wasn't bad, more appreciated it for what it is than liked listening to it.
first listen hm
Fierce, intense, powerful voice as advertised. Wish she had better songs.
Not really my bag.
This was strange and I love esoteric punk stuff generally but can’t quite figure this one out. Not sure if I’ll come back
Gloria is amazing. Absolute banger. The rest was ok. Nothing I would go back for.
This is just brilliant. Reminded me of PJ Harvey so very much up my street. The standout track for me was Free Money which I think reminded me of a PJ Harvey/Kate Bush infusion which is just great
An excellent album in many ways, also I imagine quite polarising. She can’t be everyone’s cup of tea that’s for sure. However, I bloody loved this!
This was way more fun and playful than I remembered. Always loved the first track but maybe now I'm not a Christian I can appreciate it way more XD. Enjoyable throughout, inspiring in places but a tad long. Would give it 4.5 if possible
So I had never heard a Patti Smith song before, and was expecting something more traditionally folky (don't know why). This album was cool though! Did not think there'd be some reggae in there. Patti Smith has a great voice (it's the first voice that I've really enjoyed so far). Very charismatic and soulful. Some of the songs were a bit rambling but I did generally enjoy it. More of a 3.5 for me, but it's better than the other 3s, so I'm giving it a 4!
I wanted to enjoy this one but I didn't really at all. I find her voice annoying and the musicians sound like a jam band. I find jangly guitars difficult to get along with and it was all just a bit noodly and directionless. If I had to pick some nicer moments they would be on Free Money and Kimberley, but no. This album is not for me.
Great to revisit this. I still love the straight-up, dramatic, brilliantly executed instrumentation and wild, dark, playful poetry. Gloria and Land: Horses.. were always my favourites and still still stand out to me with their 60s R&B/soul references, semi-religious/sacrareligious vibes, and particular playfulness in the lyrics. There's something really brilliant for me in how it plays with and twists rock'n'roll story tropes and imagery, and that was certainly a lot of the appeal when I was younger and more obsessed with that stuff. I enjoyed the whole thing though, just as it started to get a bit samey something shifts up, a well structured album in that way. Kimberley and Elegie also stood out. I'd like to spend some time with other Patti Smith records, I haven't done much of that.
I expected to love this, but found it difficult to really get in to. Took a few tries but warmed up and eventually yearned for more. Likely just getting to it a bit late, but intrigued to listen to the legacy version at some point
Really liked this. Would listen to again and her other stuff. Last track reminded me of Kate Bush a bit.
Would like to like it more.
I'm literally a dyke who listens to post-punk and studied french literature, how have I never properly listened to this before
I don’t mind Patti Smith in small doses, but a whole album is a bit much.
Lady Paul Newman punk rock-lite. Interesting (if nothing else) lyrics and talented backing band made this a fun listen, but couldn't help but feel that the whole thing is overrated.
This album's great. Idk what more to say given realistically I know nothing about Patti Smith or her influence. I had listened to the album a couple times before the challenge. Still don't have a strong opinion Fav Track: Birdland 8.5/10 (likely to change)
Sure, why not?
It wasn’t bad album overall. There was some good, some not that good songs. Didn’t really have a favourite song from this album. Seemed like an album you would play in a coffee house.
Close to a 5. I really liked this album. I love her voice, it reminds me of Gwen Stefani a little bit. Especially on Redondo Beach and Birdland. I love a good piano in songs too. I wish it was a little longer actually. The poetry parts I usually find annoying or jarring but she worked them in flawlessly. Great album
Meh. Nothing I particularly loved about this album.
Lo-fi and kinda strange. Not really my taste, but it was fine.
Meh. Don't see the fuss.
An absolute tour de force.
never connected that pj harvey exists because of this album
I've always been ambivalent toward Patti Smith's songs, respecting her work and influence more than enjoying her music. I should have dug into her earlier stuff more.
Not for me
Opening with Gloria, apparently this is a Van Morrison cover. I guess we are in the really early stages of punk, the piano caught me off guard. Birdland is really out there, this is a bonkers track 3 for your debut album. I’ve never really heard anything like this before. It’s kind of stream of consciousness lyrically. I’m not sure this is for me. I can see how it was sort of pre-punk but I personally don’t really vibe with it that much. I think probably 2.5/5 maybe. For me 3 is neutral and this was a novelty but a bit of a struggle.
Her voice is good. But music wise it’s a bit boring and nothing stands out, at least for me. She did try spicing up the album by more emotive delivery. But her brokenness ended up sounding really unnatural and unnecessary.
i started out really liking this, and then i listened to it a second time with headphones in and had a chance to listen in a lot more for the lyrics, and honestly... it was pretty meh. i love me some poetry and spoken word, but this just didn't grip me. i'm sure Patty Smith is up there for a reason, and she probably has some really unique insights within those lyrics... but it just didn't grab me.
I think the significance of this album are lost on me. I also found my level of enjoyment depended on the environment I was listening in, at work while trying to meet a deadline was not the best way to start listening. Maybe one day I’ll look into this album, for now it’s just a generic three.
I've heard of Patti Smith before but never listened to her. I guess I was expecting more from all the praise I heard so I was a little disappointed with this album. The two 9 minute songs were way too long. I like her voice, but only for about 2:30 minutes. After that it gets kind of annoying.
not super for me
thoroughly enjoyed this one
This may be "one of the first statements in punk", and as such, a very influential album, but it's not my kind of music. I guess that's how I feel with punk in general...
I'm a little ashamed to admit that before today I had not listened to this album from start to finish, although I am certainly aware of its reputation and legend and had heard portions of it. It's worthy of the hype. Struggled between 4 stars and 5 because it's not something I would just put on and listen to regardless of mood, but it's a classic so I'll go ahead and give it 5. (Nothing matters anymore anyway.)
I can't even begin to reckon how many times I've listened to this album over the years...and how many more times I will listen as I head to no-more-land. But I will enjoy as much if not more as the 1st time I listened. Great album. Perhaps my fave....
Never gave Patti Smith a listen although I’ve heard of her. She sounds like a badass.
This is Patti Smith's Horses A very good album And I really like Horses They gallop around and around It's time I sling the baskets off this overburdened horse Sink my toes into the ground and set a different course Cause if I were here and you were there I'd meet you in between And not until my dying day, confess what I have seen
8, työmatka, koss, qobuz en oo varmaan aiemmin kuunnellu, ainakaa kokonaa
A little too high brow for my taste. I love poetic expression and experimentation in music, but the vocals got old after the first song. The concepts were difficult to understand with a casual first listen. This sounds like an album/artist that would have a dedicated following of interesting people. Wouldn't pick this up again at all, but the guitar is pretty nice.
i liked it! her vocals are super energetic and fun
GOAT. All praise Patti! I didn't properly appreciate Patti until after reading Just Kids. It's such a beautiful book, I remember the heart wrenching passages and discussing it with book club afterwards. Then Horses is just an absolutely phenomenal album. WOW. The upsweeping guitar, the rhythm sections, it's straight from Velvet Underground, New York Punk, boy this woman has power.
Stark, leider passen mir die längeren Vorträge nicht so für eine 5
This man can sing. Probably leaning toward 3.5 but upped to 4
Interesting and unique album. Different from what I was expecting & seemed like a great live performer. Gave me Bowie & Elvis Costello vibes. Must be much better live than on album. Not really memorable songs but would be fun to sing if you learned them.
Really tough listen. Patti Smith´s music is more art than music for me. And it´s an art form which just doesn´t resonate with me. Was waiting for the album to end pretty early on. 1/5
“We cannot live in a world interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a hope. Part of the terror is to take back our listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.” Hildegard of Bingen Lou Reed expelled John Cale from the Velvet Underground because Reed wanted commercial success. Thus, it is obvious why - for all the influence the smart, street-talking Reed had on Patti Smith - that she chose Cale to produce her first record. She didn’t want to make commercial rock (although, as Because the Night would later prove, she – or Springsteen - could do it). She wanted whatever it was Cale could do. Early Velvets had Cale, Angus MacLise, and Nico: a mystical tension pulling against Reed’s poetic street cynicism. It couldn’t last of course. The Marble Index suggests what the Velvets might have been without Reed’s grounding grime: a band of mystical endlessness. The mystic element of those early Velvets came in part from Cale and MacLise’s immersion in La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music. Young’s drones were not just experiments in sound but acts of duration, designed to dissolve the listener’s sense of time and place, entering Diviner's Time. The tones stretched out like an eternal now, encouraging a suspension of ordinary perception and opening a doorway to what felt like timelessness. MacLise took this into his percussion, drumming in patterns that suggested trance rather than timekeeping; he practiced the occult and drumming was part of his ritualistic practice. Cale wasn't a magician, but he bowed his viola in long, unending arcs, which is much the same thing. This was mysticism by way of minimalism: sound as eternity, repetition as revelation. The presence of that practice within the Velvet Underground created the tension - between Reed’s earthbound reportage and the others’ quest for transcendence - that gave their early work its unique charge. But Smith wasn’t that sort of mystic either. Like Reed, she was influenced by poetry, but she gravitated toward the visionary line - Rimbaud, Blake. She saw rock and roll as continuous with that tradition, and she saw tradition as alive in the present, not embalmed in the past. Thus she rejected many of Cale’s production suggestions – overdubs and the like - but she needed him to tap into the vein of drone, trance, improvisation. Without his discipline and depth, Horses might have been another garage rock punk record: urgent, but not timeless. We hear this most clearly in the opening track: Gloria. It was already a garage rock standard, but Smith turns it into an incantation. Of course, the song’s author, Van Morrison, would also make the move from punk sneer to mystic invocation on Astral Weeks. Morrison’s folk-soul incantations turn backward, dwelling in memory and longing for the lost Eden of Cypress Avenue, where Gloria is always a teenager. Smith, by contrast, seizes the incantatory mode and thrusts it into the immediate present, insisting that transformation is happening now, here, through the body and the voice. Morrison loved Blake and Yeats too, of course, but he read them as elegists. Smith read them as visionaries of the now. Her first line, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine,” is not just blasphemy - it’s a statement of method. Transcendence, for her, comes from within. It’s powered by the individual body, the voice, the dance floor at Max’s Kansas City: “I loved to dance, and you could dance for hours to the music of the Velvet Underground.” Ecstasy is not delivered from above but generated in the present moment. The music of the Velvets may have inspired her to dance, but the moment of transformation takes place inside her and goes out into the world, elevating her and the music with it. The music is there to be grabbed, harnessed, but the magical work is done by the listener. You surrender to the music, but the transformation is your own. This is where Smith’s distance from Reed becomes clear. Reed, working with Cale’s drones and repetition, created sonic states of stasis - heroin nods, lives stuck underground. The two-chord lurch of Heroin accelerates and collapses, capturing a body sinking into itself, succumbing. In contrast, Smith seizes repetition and pushes it outward. Birdland takes a handful of chords, lets them cycle, and builds them into an expanding, accelerating vision. Where Reed retreats into sleep, Smith bursts into apocalypse. It’s the difference between descent and revelation. What it reveals, I don't know exactly. Perhaps only the revelator knows. The album's centrepiece, of course, is Land. It is no surprise that this track was later used, uncut, in the series two climax of grim, millennarian TV show Millennium, appropriately titled The Time is Now - a television apocalypse. Over ten minutes, Smith creates a vision of madness and transformation: Johnny as victim, Johnny as vessel, Johnny as energy released. It is rock and roll as ecstatic ritual. Not reportage, not nostalgia, but the moment of revelation happening as we listen: is Johnny John the Revelator or rock's foundational Johnny B. Goode? Are they any different? Compare this to Lou Reed’s Rock and Roll, written in 1970 (a Velvet Underground without Cale). Reed sings of Jenny, age five, listening to a distant AM station: the story of rock and roll as memory and as something far away. It’s already in the past tense, already documentary. Van Morrison does better when he chants the names of Jackie Wilson and Fats Domino, invoking them incantatorily - but even there, it’s memory, homage. Smith reinvigorates Gloria, and folds Land of a Thousand Dances into Land, not as quotation but as re-presentation. She brings the ecstatic tradition forward into the present. It is almost blasphemous to say she re-enacts the sacred, not merely cites it - but, then, blasphemy is her project, declared in the album’s first breath. The action doesn’t necessarily work in reverse. When The Smiths (no relation) lift the riff from Kimberly for The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, the result isn’t transformative. Morrissey’s narrator, a mother, seeks to shield her child from music’s supernatural power. As “a piano plays in an empty room,” a sure sign of music's possessive allure, she soothes the child: “The ghost and the storm outside/Will not invade this sacred shrine/Nor infiltrate your mind.” Here, music is dangerous precisely because it can open the self to other forces. Morrissey acknowledges that power but retreats from it. He likes Yeats too, but he doesn't get it. His nostalgia wants to protect what little he has or had. He won’t risk apocalypse. He won’t open himself as Smith does. Or perhaps, when Marr stole the riff, Morrissey knew the power of the original record and counterpointed that power with a mother's anxiety. This comparison also points to Horses’ unevenness. Not every track detonates like Gloria, Birdland, or Land. Kimberly is lovely, but not transcendent. Free Money surges but doesn’t necessarily ascend. Break It Up is more conventional in shape, despite its visionary imagery. Redondo Beach is simply wick. I can't excuse that one. I don't like it. Still, the peaks are so high they define the record. Maybe that make a man complacent about the other material. Maybe that unneveness is necesary. Nay, vital. But those tentpole invocations - Gloria, Birdland, Land - are the album’s revelation, its ecstatic core. Horses, then, is not a perfect record. It is a record of peaks and plains, ritual and rehearsal. But that’s part of its power. By refusing polish, by rejecting Cale’s more elaborate pretensions, but not his instincts, Smith ensured that the record kept its raw charge. It is not commercial rock, not even really punk in the narrow sense. It is an experiment in ecstatic art, channelled through garage riffs and visionary poetry. In that sense, it belongs not just to the tradition of rock but to the tradition of prophecy, of poetry as transformative speech. And like prophecy, it is uneven, jagged, sometimes obscure, sometimes gibberish - but when the words hit, when the chords string out one after the other then back to one, when Smith wails and chants and howls, the world ruptures and something new comes through. That is what makes Horses enduring. It is not nostalgia like Morrison, not eternity like Nico, not cynicism like Reed, not drone like Cale. MacLise disappeared down the mythic rabbithole; Horses sticks around. It is apocalypse - personal, poetic, ecstatic. It makes the old songs live again, not as memory but as immediate, dangerous presence. It doesn’t describe rock and roll. It is rock and roll, burning in the moment, opening the self, demanding transformation. And from that opening line on, it insists: no one else can do it for you. Not Jesus. Not Lou Reed. Not John Cale. Transformation is yours to make, now. 4.5 Of all the albums that I would call my favourites, this is the one that took the longest to grow on me. I liked nothing on Horses the first time I listened to it. Over many years this has improved to liking everything on it and counting ‘Gloria: In Excelsis Deo’ as one of my favourite songs anyone has ever recorded. I think the sin of my initial distaste is excusable. It is easy to read Smith’s singing and lyrics as shallow affectation. I was imagining Smith entirely beholden only to the (obvious) cultural references that I was able to conjure up myself - Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. They are certainly both in there but the truth is that Smith’s singing and writing is idiosyncratic and frequently brilliant in its own right. Kimberly turns a Beat style to something touchingly personal. Redondo Beach is magically concise in turning an implicit scorn for everyone who’s standing around looking so dismal into the narrator’s own sorrow. It’s a great, weird pop song. Birdland, where I think Smith is boldest in risking ridicule, is simply mesmerising. It’s a committed dramatic performance of a terrific lyric. Land… is deservedly iconic. I’ve already mentioned what I think of Gloria: In Excelsis Deo. If the album has weaker moments it’s actually the tracks that must have sounded, at the time, less dated; more 70s than 60s - Free Money and Break it Up. Perhaps a little neat and a little keen to please by comparison with the rest. Still terrific. I love the cover of the album. It is as perfectly fitted to the music as any artwork I can think of; strange, aloof, utterly beautiful. 4.5/5
Important and influential…not all of the music holds up but the power of her work is still there.
Pas aimé j’avoue
Fun interesting album we listen to at home a bunch. A little too quiet for my liking. 6.5/10
Maybe I was just in the right mood at the time but this album really hit the spot for me. The opening track is the best version of the much (over?) covered Gloria. Loved the whole album
Such a distinctive sound and feel to her music.
Icon. Legend. Muse.
This is #day400 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… finally, something decent. That record cover alone is iconic; sheer class. Patti Smith is one of those women in rock who deserve their credit. Take this debut, for example: punk poetry set against mid-'70s art rock jams. And then, what could be more punk than opening your debut with "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine"? Funnily enough, when I hear her distinct voice, I also hear hints of Tom Verlaine from Television; those hiccupping, squalling nuances, if you pay enough attention... If memory serves, they were in a relationship for a time. Anyway, this is a 5 out of 5, of course. Looking forward to #day401.
It was alright but it didn't really have anything special
I think this is one of those records where it won't connect with everyone but will sink its teeth into a smaller base of fervent fans. Some of the frantic poetry doesn't make for a comfortable experience, but the raw energy and runaway train vibe is arresting. People have locked this into being a proto-punk album, which I am not totally sold on. But it is fascinating - interpolations of two rock and roll songs from the 60s in a totally new style, alongside Patti's original compositions ranging from the slinky dub of Redondo Beach to the piano-led dirge of Elegie. You can see Television, Talking Heads, and more synthesizing when the music is at its best - not to take away from it but quite the opposite.
Something for specialists ....
I loved Birdland, and the scratchy guitar sound on Land is great. Definitely see the lineage here to later singers I like, like Kristin Hersh and PJ Harvey. Strong stuff, a very high four.
Mid to soft, take these horses to the glue fact
I know I’m in the minority here, but this was beyond awful to me. I lasted about 20 seconds before turning it off. One of those artists where I’m truly baffled by their popularity. The vocals almost seem like a put on or something, she does this weird faux southern drawl interspersed with odd high pitched inflections and yelps. Just can’t do it.
The spoken word parts are good the rest is rather bad
Seems like this was probably a significant album, but don't know that I need to listen again necessarily.
Meh...
Didn't really feel this one. 2/5
Yap yap yap blah blah blah
It's OK. Not as good as its press but few are.
This album was WEIRD. I’ve heard track 2 Redondo Beach years ago and loved it. But these lyrics from track 7 for example: When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by Horses, horses, horses, horses Coming in in all directions White shining silver studs with their nose in flames He saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses Do you know how to pony like Bony Maroney? Do you know how to twist? Well, it goes like this, it goes like this Baby mash potato Do the alligator, do the alligator And you twist the twister like your baby sister I want your baby sister, give me your baby sister, I dig your baby sister Rise up on her knees Do the sweet pea, do the sweet pee-pee”
point0.
Loved this album. Artistic, poetic, and emotional. It carries pure, raw energy that feels both legendary and deeply personal. Patti’s voice and vision come across as unapologetic and powerful. A true icon.
Equestrian as an album
I'm torn on how to rate this. The album was fine. Like so many other albums, her voice was my least favorite part. She used a lot of techniques that I have been very harsh against in previous albums. It was clearly a stylistic choice as she demonstrated that she can sing well. I respect her use of them more than many others because she used them for sarcasm or emphasis, but I still dislike the nasal or breathy tones. Otherwise, the album was fine. On a side note, apparently what I thought punk was and what others consider it to be are two different things.
I liked a lot about this album. What I don't necessarily like is the mumbling and random noises, but it can work. I appreciate the story elements of all these songs. No standouts, really. Just a fine album with some fine songs
This record IS a product of it's time. But it's more than that. It's a true expression of poetry over music. It has been frequently cited as the first punk rock album, or at lest a key recording of punk rock.
Sounds like the predecessor of PJ Harvey. Currently the favorite new discovery from the 1001 albums.
Overrated
Stays fresh!
Biggest surprise of the list so far. Really liked this one, and not sure why I hadn’t heard of it before. Will check out more of Patti smiths music for sure!
FUFCK YES i love you baby
It’s a good record and important socially. Songs are pretty good. I get why - it is documenting a very important period of American music. But it’s overrated.
There’s a terrifying energy and mania to this
You can definitely hear the roots of punk rock in here. Feels like we have had a lot of similar albums recently and this on was fine
For an album so massively influential in genres I like, I'd never listened to this all the way through somehow but I think it's pretty amazingly original, and would probably go 4.5 stars if I could. The opener is just awesome with the opening lines, starting slowly and then just taking off into punk (before punk was really even a thing) fury. Her vocals are so versatile, ranging from like a Joni Mitchell-esque beauty to the snarling punk with those little yelpy inflections that would be copied by so many to come. The lyrics are beautiful in a surreally weird way and just so atypical for the genre this spawned that eventually would lean very no-nonsense and often political - she definitely thought of herself as a poet first and foremost and you can totally see why. Nothing sounded like this in 1975 and to me Patti Smith is rightly lauded as a patron saint of punk.
Turned it off halfway through birdland. Aggressive DNF. Then I thought - hey, you’re better than that. Then I got to the end yowling of “break it up” and I wanted to throw my speakers out of my window.
I enjoyed this so much more than I expected.
Staying at Chelsea Hotel and got Patti Smith which was a cool coincidence. And then I pushed play when I left the lobby and started my run. The album ended exactly when I walked back through the door back into the lobby. Good omen and great album!
I never bothered to find out what the Patti Smith fandom was all about and am glad I did! This is wonderful!
Patti Smith is my spirt animal.
a debut studio album from Patty Smith that draws from a garage punk/DIY punk aesthetic but also incorporates elements of art rock and improvisation. Incorporation of longer song lengths with extended improv sections creates almost an anthemic, epic feeling to the album without feeling too polished. Lots of repeated tags throughout the song that allows for building and billowing walls of sound that barely hang on to structure but still feel wild and free.
Had my eye on this one for a while. This is probably THE gateway album to Punk, it was good.
225/1089 - I really like the way the songs evolve over time, and how they stick to only 2 or 3 chords at most. Goes to show you that chords and harmony is just one part of the equation of what makes a good song. Her voice is very strange though.
Not for me.
Patti is my favorite woman in rock music. Love her. This is just great
Alright
Genial. Ya conocía a la artista y sabia lo mítica que era pero simplemente me ha sorprendido. Bastante guay
Honestly didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it either. Poetic lyrics and reminded me of Blondie and PJ Harvey. 4/10
Redondo beach from a NY author is such a fun surprise.
Don't really know why, but this didn't strike me as being too interesting. Some highlights, and I'm sure it was important for its time, but hearing it now I was left a bit bored.
I never thought of this as a punk album, but there are parts that I love. Worth listening to.
own
I liked the attitude and the meshing of old with the new (mainly thinking of some of the references in the songs). It was interesting, but not something I'd listen to again.
It’s pretentious, arty nonsense and I bloody love it.
Patti Smith is and remains one of my favorite artists. Yes, and it sounds like art. Hey, and that's exactly how it's supposed to be. Is that pretentious? I think so. Not everyone has to sing "Anarchy" or "Heart of Glass." This is a great album!
on first listen the vocals are a little bit raw and unfiltered and not exactly melodic and especially for a female singer. Upon further listen I actually very much dislike her vocals.
2nd favourite Patti Smith slbum
Det kan hende «Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine» ikke e den beste førstelinja på et album eller en sang noensinne, men det e jammen mæ ganske høyt oppe på lista. Og så følge resten opp og e like bra. Lenge siden sist gang æ hørte på det, men æ elske det fortsatt.
Meh
I've been waiting for this one to come up. I've listened to this album a few times over the years, it's seemingly on every 'best of' list. It took me a while to get it. When I did get it I realized this is what it sounds like to give no fucks. Pure raw art that's just electric. This album is the sound of freedom. I need to live my life more like Horses.
Shes so cool. And so many people sound (or want to sound) like her but nobody does quite this. The way she says every single word on here is so funny in and at the same time so cool. It really sounds like the most idgaf art student in the best way
sick stuff and more experimental than i remember or think of when i think of patti smith, pretty cool
First though 50 seconds in, "Female Nick Cave? No... Iggy Pop? No..." Punk, but art-y. Mix feels strange, a bit harsh, lots of treble, hardly any low end. Not terribly unpleasant though. Gloria 6/10 Redondo Beach 5/10 Birdland skipped Free Money 8/10 Kimberly 7/10 I can stop here I think. This album is everything that I like in concept. On actual listening though, I don't enjoy it, other than for it's craft and tone. I just don't like listening to it.
I have listened to this before I died. I do not feel like it made a big difference to my life having listened to this. 3 stars.
These songs meander and feel like they go on forever.
mocne 4*
good
I think this is definitely album worth listening. I like the energy of Patti Smith on the album, like instruments. I just don't know what to say I really like this album Fav. tracks Gloria: In Excelsis Deo Birdland Free Money Kimberly Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances / La Mer (de) 5/5
Excellent
Raw, visceral and poetic. Punk in attitude, literary in scope.
Gonna have to revisit this one, seemed very eclectic on a first listen but I see the potential!
I've always felt I should like Patti Smith more than I do. Considering the music I like, all the components are there. But alas. I can appreciate her music on an analytical level, but I just didn't enjoy listening to this album very much.
I’m a big fan of the song Kimberly, and I like most of this album. The song Birdland probably moves this from a 4 to a 3 for me. Too long and too much warbling.
5/5 - I needed to hear this in my life because it’s one of the original seeds that influenced so many bands I love. Smith is a complete badass on this recording and sets the tone right from the first line of Gloria. I don’t care if her voice is all over the place, and it’s often just 3-chord rock. It’s about the attitude and the message — still real 50 years later.
That'll do nicely thank you.
Powerful record, though not as evenly balanced on song quality as I had expected.
Just don't have the ear for Patti Smith. Not a fan of her voice and her live version of My Generation is just annoying. No thank you.
She's an oddball. Kinda sounds like a cross between Pat Benitar and Gwen Stephani. Learned from the Wiki that she had a ton of poetry she had written and felt it needed something, so she got into music. Gloria is a great tune from this album. Outside that, it's not great, but it oddly satisfying. Even the sloggers. She finds a way to hold your attention.
The was a fun album. Interesting to hear some proto-punk from way back.
I know it's the sound of the time but it did not age well. Feels like a meme more than an all time album 2.0
Hippie music Slam poetry session Vocals hurt my earss 1970s NYC theater kid
This is a much-mythologized album. I think it’s cool that a female artist broke through in this way at this time. Now, do I like it? I actually had this on CD and I used to listen to it driving. I think it’s a good car album. It makes me feel like I’m on some free-spirited Jack Kerouac road trip instead of driving to a hockey rink in Burnaby or whatever. (have I read On the Road? No.) Gloria in particular is fantastic (I like it better than the original). It really sets a mood. But then the album doesn’t really sustain my interest. The songs are really similar to each other and have a rambling quality. I think the problem is I don’t like spoken word poetry, and this album is heavy on it. When I read the lyrics, I think, this is cool, very atmospheric and epic. But then spoken out loud in a pseudo-spiritual preachery way paired with the proto-punk, garage rock sound? I don’t know, it just gets really repetitive and loses me.
I think i've finally figured out what I don't like about this album. In the past I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I've tried to get into this album a few times since it's a legendary proto punk album, and it just never worked for me. The same is true now, but at least now I know why. And... drum role please... i'm sad to say this... it feels blasphemous to even think this.... it's Patti Smith. Her voice and overall delivery... kinda suck? I don't like it. I really enjoy everything else around her. I love the piano rock instrumentals and the gang vocals (especially on gloria). There's so much energy and propulsion to these songs. It's hype. I even like some of her lyrics. I just don't like her voice/delivery. It's kind of annoying... grating even at times. I'd love to hear another vocals perform these songs, maybe Iggy Pop could pull it off. Just someone else... not Patti. Which really makes it hard for me to enjoy this record because she's part of almost every second of it. I think my favourite track is Gloria... the "hit". The strength of the song and instrumental and the backing vocals hold it together... and Patti is solid. She works okay on this track. She doesn't get in the way. Where she really loses me are on the 9 minute tracks where she gets really rambley and unhinged. On these tracks, her voice really starts to wear me down unfortunately. Sigh. For this main reason, it's a 2.5 at best... rounding down. Sorry Patti... you seem like a cool lady.
Patti Smith is a personal icon of mine. That being said, I think this is such an impactful album. It's melodramatic and real and about the MEANING of the words in the songs. I love her and I love this album. Patti Smith single handedly changed the game when it came to women in punk and what that looked like. She was a one of a kind. Every sad indie artist's sound today can be seen in the echoes of this album. She is first a poet and then a musician.
I’m not completely sold on this album, but I’m not unimpressed either. It’s easy to recognize its cultural weight and artistic ambition, even if it doesn’t fully connect with me. Songs like Gloria and Land of a Thousand Dances stand out as strong and engaging, but overall the record leaves me somewhere in the middle. 3/5
Like a lady Bob Dylan, but the lyrics had a little more cohesion.
A name I’ve known forever with absolutely no idea what she’s about. It’s much better than I was expecting, I was ready to be snoozed
8 minute songs are as bad as hour long albums. Hated this
that's álbum is for me one of the best can i listening ever
Finally a reason to actually listen to this album properly… I don't really like it? Found myself getting quite bored or rolling my eyes a few times...
Strange and exciting. A couple of crackers. Interesting voice.
Good but not great.
Patti Smith, showing it how it's done. Edgy poetry wailing punk.
Highlights the difference between an artist and an entertainer, and Patti is definitely the former. Lots of interesting and experimental stuff here. Not always something you'd enjoy listening to a lot, but that would be entertainment and not art.
Not my favorite Patti smith album
I know this was a seminal album, but it was just ok to me.
2 stars becuase she’s an icon. Honestly did nothing for me.
I do like it, but I don’t love it
I've heard of Patti Smith before, but this might have been my first time actually listening to her music. And I liked it a lot! She's got a great voice and the music was cool too. I can definitely hear her influence in a lot of other stuff I like.
Ugh this isn't punk. I can't really get into her voice. The first songs set my standards really high and they just weren't met throughout the rest. Some of these songs are wayyyy too long and just feel to stay at the same level. Liked Songs: "Gloria: In Excelsis Deo" and "Free Money"
2.25
More lyrically driven than I expected. Have always seen the album, but never listened before. Enjoyed it
Steve Huey said that this album is the first "artistic punk" album and I couldn't agree more. The album is exactly a blend of poetry and punk. Each song is a story with a specific purpose in mind, but some of the songs have so much going on (Land) that it needs to be analyzed. Elegie is straight up a poem set to music. There's one part in Break It Up when you can hear her obviously pounding on her chest while she sings.....which I have never heard before from a studio album. I can really understand why this album was so important as it is very unique and really needs to be analyzed. I completely get why Patti Smith has been such a huge influence on a lot of female artists even to today. There's definitely punk vibes, but the music perfectly accompanies the story that's being told, ranging from smooth to chaotic.
It's an eclectic genre bending album before that was the cool thing to do which I appreciate. It starts out a little rough but gets better as it goes on in my opinion.
quwria dar 3,5
It’s ok, but not quite the missing link or bridge to punk but maybe new wave. Draws heavily from the first Velvets album without pushing the envelope.
Yep, a pretty good album. Great to hear a female voice, there haven’t been enough
Loved it. 4/5
Music was fine but that voice is hard to listen to to.
This feels like something I am supposed to like. And I liked a few songs, but other parts were too weird and off putting.
Good punk. Not my genre but informative and edifying to listen to.
More enjoyable album than I expected it to be. "Gloria: In Excelsis Deo" is a banger and very fun to listen to, and the rest of the album is pretty unique and enjoyable. Just a solid album.
Maybe influential but i found it kinda annoying
Superbement audacieux, original, senti et maîtrisé
I remember buying this LP in 1978, as it had such a great reputation amounts the popular music press at the time. I did not rate it. Eventually swapped it for "Can't Stand The Rezillos." Listening to it 47 years later, I still think I got the good end of the deal. It's still low quality, pretentious drivel.
Ładny rock, ale dosyć angażujące. Trochę brzmi jak The Beathles, pewnie to herezja, ale tak mi sie kojarzy. Czasem za dużo gadania, za dużo przeciągania w kółko tego samego.
Sou fã de Patti Smith, acho-a um génio. Quer seja nos livros ou na música! Não há muito a dizer, é um álbum perfeitamente articulado entre músicas, tudo faz sentido e é incrível!
Feel like I needed to be higher to get into that
Ugh I hate this. This makes me wish I gave some of the other 1 star albums 2 stars because they don't compare. Totally unsurprised to find this is produced by a member of the Velvet Underground. Listening on it's overall not quite so bad as I felt from the opening (though some of the songs are that bad). I hear the avant-garde punk. I hear stuff that pretty clearly influenced acts like Sleater-Kinney. Also not surprised to learn that she was a poet-turned-singer instead of the other way around. It ended up not as bad as I was worried it would be but I'm still not ever going to be excited about listening to it again.
I've heard of Patti Smith, but never listened to her. I liked this. It reminds me of like a mix of the Velvet Underground and the Ramones. It's a bit more chill than some of the other punk at the time and the spoken word parts make it into its own thing.
her voice is great but its kinda just the same song over and over
Best Song: Gloria: In Excelsis Deo This album is odd. While I can respect it artistically, this is another scenario that I would never really listen to this whole album again (or at least not often enough to give it a 4/5). Gloria is a banger, but for every good song there is a 9+ minute song that goes on for 8+ minutes too long. This album is beloved by critics and the music equivalent of The Simpsons Comic Book Guy, but perhaps my palate isn't refined enough for it. 3/5.
Strong vocals and great songs. Really enjoyed listening. The album is as old as us , but worn a lot better !!
One that I was aware of but never listened to. Really liked a lot of it so annoyed that I haven’t taken the time to listen to it before.
An interesting and timeless album. However, I found it difficult to listen to as her voice really doesn’t work on some of the songs. Others worked perfectly and I liked the variety, but probably never listen again.
She has a really distinct delivery and style which brings flashes of more contemporary artists to mind, PJ Harvey, and oddly, Julian Cope (Jehovahkill era) spring to mind immediately. Her influence in that regard is clearly strong. Musically it feels like the band is just fitting in around her delivery in a mix of styles, I prefer the more blues rocky numbers, but that’s not the focus really. I have listened to this before and while it’s interesting I’m never really drawn back in. I did see her recently at a festival in 23. She’s still got the pipes.
La voz amiga la voz
Ok
This is once again just a bit outside of my tastes, but you can definitely see the bones of what I like! I'm most fond of Free Money here, but definitely like other parts too here and there. It's good.
Surprisingly rich and mellow for a punk album. I knew I'd like this one soon after I put it on and went "wait, I should return to this when I can listen to it more actively". I still haven't fully digested it I feel. Very cool stuff here.
Wild stuff. At turns gorgeous with that piano and rowdy with its intense guitar, and anchored throughout by Patti's stunningly abrasive voice. A true classic of proto-punk - sorry, New York Dolls, this is the real deal.
I really wanted to like this, I did. Especially because of the absolute killer of an opening line. But this is just Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters in the 70s with slightly more of a band behind her. Why is she singing like that?
I can actually see the vision here? The instrumentals are fire and perfectly match her dramatic delivery and storytelling. Birdland and Land:Horses were certainly unique experiences, feeling almost like full-on theatre plays. ..Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of theatre, and nothing was particularly engaging outside of that novelty. Standout: Free Money
Great album. This ages like fine wine for me. I like it more with each listen. I don't usually tap my foot to this type of music but I found myself GROOVING. Never knew what she'd do next. What a gifted artist.
Not bad, just didn't really like it much.
Pretty good
Day 28 I have listened to it already maybe 3 times before. It's a classic album and for a reason. No one does it like Patti! (4/5)
Horses
Not really for me
Rating: 8.5/10
9/10
One of my favourite records ever. Just brilliant from start to finish.
It's that kind of rock and roll i am very much a fan off, and want to learn to play on both guitar and piano. Can't be beaten. Very impressive singing. 1 - the ending with the drum fill? and the guitar solo is amazing. 3- mix of poetry, music? Quite an impressive performance. 6- nice backing guitar. again vocal performance is very impresive, all fits very well together. quite the fan actually. 7- just reinforces what i've said before. interesting lyrics, good performance. Surprisingly really enjoyed this. Not the usual kind of thing I'd put on it but it was very lyrically interesting, and is of course my kind of basic rock and roll, with a little added complexity. Becoming quite a fan of spoken music at the moment.
Nope
This is a good album. It has a lot of really nice experimentation with vocals from percussive sounds, talking, and shoving a million words into a phrase that probably only typically has 10. Some of that is really good and others fall short of what I think she was trying to accomplish but that’s the price of experimentation. I want to listen to this album like 4 more times and focus on a different part of it each time, there’s really a lot going on that I need more time to soak in. I’m sitting at a strong 4 on this but it could make its way up to 5. Track 7 (long name one) is so packed with ideas and cool things but I don’t know if it all works.
This album didn't do it for me at all. It was way to experimental and weird for me. I really couldn't find myself enjoying most of this album. Her voice really annoyed me. Redondo Beach and the Horses song were the least band, but definitely won't be relistening. Weak to decent 2
I think Patti is one of those beloved bad vocalists (ie Bob Dylan) that gets away with everything because of the quality of the lyrics. Pass. Way too much warbling and nonsensical songs. Some of the melodies are nice though.
Not for me. The whole time I wished I was listening to “The Dutchess” by Fergie
Gloria is great, prefer her style of singing on the faster/harder rock songs, do not like her style on slower stuff
Well, it was worth giving this another try, even though the verdict hasn't changed: not my thing. "Gloria: In Excelsis Deo" is great, though it's partly a cover. Shout out to my younger self, who bought the two-disco deluxe version of Horses, listened to it once, then never played it again.
I know people like Michael Stipe and Robert Smith were very inspired by Patti Smith and that's totes cool but Patti Smith mostly reminds me of a woman that worked with me at Pizza Hut in 1996 in Delaware, Ohio who did not like me and also scared the shit out of me.
very weird album, partially spoken word, partially sung.
I love getting albums that I already own! Listened to the vinyl for the full, raw experience. I like Patti Smith quite a bit, but I admit this one isn't my favorite of her albums. "Gloria: In Excelces Deo" absolutely slaps and is a powerhouse start to the album, but none of the songs after it really reach that same peak. Nevertheless, it's clearly influencial and is building on previous rock trends in an interesting (to me) way. Smith's lyrics are always fantastic, she really is a poet and rocker, not the other way around.
3.5
2.5
"Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" Not only is that a hell of a line to open up an album but to also open up an entire career, WOW! Is there such thing as proto-postpunk? I must say, wish I had heard this album earlier in my life. I really only knew Patti Smith from "Gloria" and "Because The Night". Though a lot of the things I was reading about her as precursor to the American Punk scene, I see most of her influence more on the backside of punk as it morphed into post Punk, specifically some of the more punkier sides of Blondie. But I can also see her influence on the likes of PJ Harvey and later on Liz Phair. I've always thought that her voice was not something I would really get into , but as I went through this album the Darkness the haunting this really grabbed me and appreciate her approach. Honestly the only song I really had noted is not really liking that much was the closer but it works really well as a closer so I'm starting this off with a strong 4¼★ but I think it could go higher up on further lessons 9.53 ★★★★½
The highlights here, "Gloria" and the title track, are great, hut the rest is a bit uneven, still 4 stars
This album isn't perfect, but I do think it's a super cool, influential album. Patti does something similar to other bands of the CBGB scene in that she takes her idea of what rock 'n roll sounds like, but takes it in a new futuristic direction. So the end result is an album that doesn't really sound like what was happening in rock at the time, but if you listen to a lot of the alternative/college rock albums of the '80s, this is sort of the genesis of that. Highlights for me are "Gloria", "Free Money", and "Break it Up". 4 stars.
4.5
An important record of the Heebee Jeebie movement no doubt, Patti Smith’s mid-70s debut is the archetype of art rock with attitude. With its raw, unvarnished production style and snarling, ragged (nay, ‘hoarse’) vocals, it throws in dollops of reggae and monolithic slabs of spoken word for good measure and the net effect is a record that beyond the first track Gloria mainly makes for painful listening. Clearly a massively influential record, you can hear a lot of bad Blondie, bad Nick Cave and better than average PJ Harvey in this. If these songs were horses competing at the Grand National then they would all grimly fall at the first hurdle, except Gloria which might straggle on for a bit after a ropey start but it’s left for Rikkie Lee Jones The Horses to clinch the title in a leading pack of Prefab Sprout’s Wild Horses, America’s A Horse With No Name and U2’s Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.
A classic, the titular track is a behemoth.
I always knew about Patti Smith being a kind of punkish folk character, but never actually listened to her for whatever reason. This album starts off pretty strong with a good rendition of Gloria, which manages to be unique and good despite all the various superstars like Hendrix who have also given it a go. The songs stay pretty consistent--it's almost like Patti Smith sounds like Lou Reed at his best without all the dumb songs the latter indulges in during heroine binges. In any case, this album has a kind of slow burning energy. It's a solid find, and I'll definitely come back to this one. 4/5
Not a bad album, nothing truly stood out and i will admit at times i was easily distracted from the album. It’s a shame we can’t half star, but i can’t keep giving out 3. Alas 2 it is
I didn't think it was bad, but this is really not my kind of music.
Happy to have listened to a seminal album and all but I do not wish to hear it again.
Not really my style but it was an interesting listen
3.5
3.5
Few songs hit as hard as "Gloria," genuinely the baddest, punkest shit you'll ever hear. Pure tear-the-roof-off energy. It's sort of impossible for the rest of the album to not feel like a let down after such a high high, but even in its more drawn-out and uneven stretches it's captivating. Other highlights include "Birdland" and "Free Money", and the "Land" medley. Just a massive, powerful talent.
9.7/10
Punk-laurite, 1975 debut, "intelligent and self-conscious" john Cale produced Birdland Kimberly Land
Not a massive fan of Patti smith not my thing.
8/10 Obviously a great album. The lyrics are poetry. Imagery like few others have ever created in the world of Rock music. And some real energy and performance. But maybe, just maybe, the slower songs are too slow.
MI MADROTA, PATTI, QUIEN ASPIRO A SER, POR TI VIVO, TE AMO
I fast forwarded through pretty much every track on this album, that’s gonna be a no for me. One star