On her 1975 debut, Smith was full of piss and vinegar, seriously interested in bringing together high art and low three-chord rock & roll. As a result, her free-form poetry meshes with covers of "Gloria" and "Land of a Thousand Dances," and the album centers on two long, highfalutin' pieces, including the three-part suite (warning! warning! art!) "Land." (The CD version appends a messy live take on The Who's "My Generation.") Led by Richard Sohl's piano, the arrangements don't exactly rock, and some of Smith's songwriting gets buried in its stylistic affectations (there's a great song under "Redondo Beach"'s fake reggae). But the point of
Horses was Smith's persona of volume, cunning and exile, and it comes through distinctly.
--Douglas Wolk
Customer Review: Poetic, disturbing...good album...3 and 1/2 stars out of 5
I'm writing this review some months after buying this album. I bought the album because it was mentioned in an article about albums you must own. Saw this album really cheap, new, with a vinyl look to the cd. Usually I write very long-winded reviews of albums, so this time I'll just write something short, and going on memory. Firstly, I am mostly into pop/rock music. By these standards, there aren't any great/good songs in that mould in this album. This isn't to say that the album is a dud...merely to say that the album should be judged by different criteria to pop/rock. It's also not to say that the artist can't write great songs in the pop/rock mould-she has written a pop/rock masterpiece in "Because the night". So, what is the attraction of this album? To me, it's the poetic, lyrical, scary, weird terrain that it covers. Sure, there are covers, more or less, of well known songs like "Gloria" [has original lyric input from Smith, I think] and "My generation", but these songs are not reasons to buy the album...they're probably the weakest links in this album. This album could not have been released decades beforehand, I would not think. The sheer weirdness and creepiness of some songs would have seen Patti either sedated or moved into a sanitarium! Stand-out songs for me are: "Birdland" and "Land", from memory. The former has an interesting lyrical structure and delves into the weird...alien abductions, from memory. "Land" is the song, from memory, where Patti gives full vent to her weirdness...some of her imagery is quite disturbing and suitable for mature audiences only, I think. These songs, being poetic in nature, make it reasonably opaque as to what the narrative of the song is, apart from having bloody, disturbing imagery on occasion. All in all, this album does not have conventionally 'good' songs on it. It's more arty/farty, if I can phrase it that way. I wouldn't listen to this album for specific songs...it's more the kind of album you just plonk on and listen to all the way through...perhaps it's a hot-bath or veg-out listen kind of cd. There aren't any conventionally memorable songs on this, but I think I did enjoy songs like "Redondo Beach" and "Free money" [apart from the 'worthy' songs like "Birdland" and "Land"]. Just btb, listening to one song in particular on this album [I don't remember which], it struck me that Patti's vocals reminded me [forget temporal order here] of The Divinyl's Chrissie Amphlett. So, perhaps Chrissie was influenced vocally by Patti. Anyway, this is a really good album, it's just not good in a "top 40" kind of way. If you like experimental, poetic type music, I think you will like this album. It's not weird in a The Beatles' "Revolution 9" kind of way, but the poetic imagery of Patti is sometimes more weird than The Beatles. For the musically adventurous.
Customer Review: Horses
When it opens with a line like, "Jesus died for someone's sins but not for mine", you know you're in for something good. Sure enough, that one line launches you into a forty-five minute album filled with graphic descriptions of sex and violence. (Listen to my personal favorite, Land, if you want proof). She sings her dark verses with so much intensity, so much feeling that it makes Jim Morrison look like a raving drunk. Yes, it's that intense, people. And she somehow manages to turn a brutal tale of murder into the R&B nugget Land of a Thousand Dances, not to mention an even rawer version of Gloria, the album's signature song. Best tunes include Gloria, Free Money, Kimberly, Break It Up and Horses, though every song on this album is thoroughly amazing.
Buy now on Amazon...