Gone Again Beckley WV

Gone Again

Patti Smith

Arista Records, 1996

REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/10/1997

Give Patti Smith's album Gone Again the critic proof award of 1996. Although thisalbum was still wrapped in cellophane, I knew I had to respect howthe album came about. For critics who thrive on sympathy, Smithlost her husband and her brother in the same year. For othercritics, it's a new album from the high priestess of punk. Howcould you dis an artist who fluidly brought beat poetry, punk andraw feminism into two classic albums, Horses and Easter?

When all is said and done though, the content of the album iswhat will endure. And luckily for us, Patti Smith does havesomething to say with Gone Again. The album is a quiet, burning eulogy to herhusband Fred "Sonic" Smith, but it never sinks into self-pity.

The album kicks off with one of the last collaborations Smithdid with her husband, "Gone Again." It's one of the two hardrockers on the album. Smith wisely doesn't try to recapture herwild, unrestrained fury of "Rock And Roll Nigger"; instead shecomes off as a scarred warrior. "I have a winter's tale/how vagranthearts relent prevail", that line lays the theme of the entirealbum.

"Beneath The Southern Cross" is more like the tempo of the restof the album. With the help of her old band member, Lenny Kaye,"Southern Cross" is a beautiful acoustic piece. The musicbackground is miminal and organic part due to producer MalcolmBurn, who produced Midnight Oil's hugely overlooked gem Breathe last year. While the music takes a back seat, Smithlets her lyrical poetry loose. No one I know could say "equatorialbliss" as gorgeous as Smith can.