Patti Smith
With her Leonard-Cohen-on-estrogen voice, her disdain for melody and her penchant for brooding poetry about pain and distress, Smith, now 50, hasn't exactly been pop music's good-time girl. This second album in her comeback cycle, however, verges on the dirgelike so determinedly that it's unlikely to win her any new fans. Of course, Gone Again, her 1996 return to performing after a 16-year hiatus, was hardly a frolic either. It was inspired by the death of her husband, musician Fred "Sonic" Smith. But this album includes songs titled "Dead City," "Death Singing" and "Memento Mori" and such lines as "I never wanted to see the sun" and "Every day is eternity." The funereal tone is heightened by Smith's declamatory, talk-singing style. Well, Smith never pretended to be Cyndi Lauper. Ever since her 1975 debut, Horses, she has been serious about her poetry and music. Her admirers might still wish that she had better diction—to make the poetry clearer—but they're unlikely to be any more put off by her heavy-handedness than they were before. (Arista)
Your Reaction
