L.A. Times Review

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This very positive review of "Twelve" was in the L.A. Times this morning:

http://www.calendarlive.com/music/reviews/la-ca-rack15apr15,0,711643.story?coll=cl-music-util


RECORD RACK

Patti Smith
"Twelve" (Columbia)


April 15, 2007

Smith has it covered

PATTI SMITH has done memorable covers since the beginning of her long career b "Land of 1,000 Dances," "Gloria" b but this is her first collection entirely comprising other people's songs. In addition to indulging herself with some old favorites, the celebrated punk matriarch has something to tell us about what these songs mean in this modern world of war, strife, lies and struggle.

Although the dozen selections include many '60s classics and rock legends, Smith hears and conveys messages from a range of eras. Some of her takes are surprising b Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" done with banjos (?!), the Doors' "Soul Kitchen" slow and flavored with R&B. But these arrangements emphasize the weirdly transcendent poetry of the originals and seem natural for Smith. Not so much, at first, Tears for Fears' 1985 hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." But somewhere around the carefully pronounced lines "I can't stand this indecision / married with a lack of vision," her nearly faithful rendition shows how much this tune speaks to the now.

Smith and her band of bassist Tony Shanahan, guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty b abetted by her son and daughter, Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson and playwright Sam Shepard (on the aforementioned banjo) b mix up a bluesy, psychedelic witches' brew that feels like one long, complex incantation to keep us safe, to make us see there is indeed some kinda way out of here.

The opener, Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?," does a slow burn from challenge to taunt, channeling the original in sound and spirit. Neil Young's "Helpless" has a hushed lushness, at once bleak and lovely. And Smith's roadhouse-ragged version of the Stones' "Gimme Shelter" is increasingly raw and portentous, echoing with eerie, bent-string guitar and her deep, direct vocal.

Alongside these, the Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" is merely amusing, and the mind begins to wander during the Allman Brothers Band's "Midnight Rider." But Smith snaps you back to attention with the closer, Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise," as the accusatory lyric becomes a warning to those who glorify the past and romanticize the future while never actually acting to change the present.

Natalie Nichols

Albums are rated on a scale of four stars (excellent), three stars (good), two stars (fair) and one star (poor). Albums reviewed will be released Tuesday.