"Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine," says Patti Smith in the opening seconds of her 1975 debut, Horses. Blending Beat poetry with music, the punk rock icon would go on to influence everyone from Morrissey and Johnny Marr to Michael Stipe of R.E.M., U2, Sonic Youth, Madonna, and Courtney Love. Her influence reaches far beyond music, and she has/would go on to employ various forms of expression to get her message across, but Horses is the album that lead people to PS, all the while having a direct impact on punk, post-punk and alt rock movements that would follow. Includes "Gloria," "Free Money," "Birdland," "Kimberly" (reworked by the Smiths for "the Hand That Rocks the Cradle"), "Elgie," "Break It Up," and more.

• music label: Arista 1975 / 2017

reviewed by bal elbat 03/2017