4.0 out of 5 stars
One masterpiece + one great album, March 6, 2007
This review is from: Easter/Wave (Audio CD)
Of her early work, Easter is Patti's most accessible album and owing to the inclusion of Springsteen's beautiful Because the Night it became her biggest seller - she had managed to adapt her poetic gifts to appeal to a mainstream rock audience. Strong melodies and arrangements abound: Till Victory is Patti at her rousing, anthemic best while Babelogue followed by Rock 'n Roll N!gger is a hypnotic stream-of-consciousness rant. Other great tracks include Space Monkey, Privilege and Ghost Dance. Easter found a good balance between her commercial aspirations and artistic vision, and is recommended as a starting point for those who want to investigate the punk poetess.
After the spectacular Horses and Easter anything would have been a let-down. I love this album, however, for its great songs. Frederick is a poetic number with a lovely, hummable melody in the vein of Because The Night. Dancing Barefoot is more experimental and rather haunting with an interesting rhythm, whilst So You Wanna Be A Rock 'n Roll Star is a spirited version of the R&R classic and Hymn is a fragile lullaby with Patti accompanying herself on a harp or similar instrument - it reminds me of The Jackson Song on Dream Of Life. For me the highlight of the album is Broken Flag, a solemn but powerful dirge about courage in adversity. The title track Wave is a spoken word delivery with gulls and ocean sounds and doesn't appeal to me. I would say this album is essential for fans but not the correct entry point for someone just starting to investigate the talented Ms Smith.
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