Customer Reviews

Gone Again

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4 star:		(1)
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Patti Smith is an artist whose failures are often as interesting as her successes, and many of her recordings offer a mixture of both--but here in GONE AGAIN, which Smith dedicates to her deceased husband, there is only success piled upon success. This is easily the best of her post-comeback recordings, and it ranks along side her earlier successes HORSES and EASTER.

The title cut, which opens the collection, blasts full throttle with all the ferocity one expects of Patti Smith at her best--but the cut is actually a little atypical of the album as a whole, which adopts a quiet, musing tone as Smith sings about life, love, and loss. In the process, Smith proves (as if there was any doubt) that she is just as if not more powerful without recourse to the screaming guitars and multi-layered vocals that marked her earlier recordings. "Southern Cross," "About a Boy," and "My Madrigal" are particularly fine, memorable, and haunting introspections... but simply stated, there is not a single weak track in the entire collection. It's all powerful stuff.

This is easily one of Smith's best, and many will consider it her absolute best. And if you've ever wondered why Patti Smith is considered one of the most innovative, influential performers of "art" rock, GONE AGAIN will explain all you need to know. An essential recording.

I was actually going to review Gung Ho, her new CD, but I got to thinking about how wonderful Gone Again is, and how much this record means to me. There is not one mis-step, musically or lyrically, on this record, and it possesses a beautiful unity of theme and texture. "Beneath the Southern Cross" is simply one of the finest, most moving songs I have ever heard - an acoustic guitar, two chords, and that voice. And that is all. A truly great album - one of her best, I think.

This brilliant 1996 return by Patti Smith overwhelmed me since it contains everything that I've always loved about her music, and that I find lacking in the subsequent Peace & Noise and Gung Ho. Although many of the songs are about loss, the overall mood is one of transcendence and strength in adversity, as encapsulated in the lines: "Dead to the world/Alive I awoke."

My favourites are the four beautiful ballads Dead To The World, Ravens, Beneath The Southern Cross and the very folky Farewell Reel. Everything that makes her music great is here: poetic, inspired lyrics, great soaring melodies and that visceral, soul-wrencing voice of hers, plus the passionate playing of the band.

The players include John Cale on organ, Tom Verlaine on guitar, Jay Dee Daugherty on drums, Lenny Kaye on drums and Kimberly Smith on mandolin, PLUS Jeff Buckley (R.I.P.) on backing vocals. "Gone Again" is definitely one of the Top 5 rock albums of the 90s, and ranks among her best work ever - up there next to Horses and Easter.

Patti Smith's husband and brother died within a month of eachother. It nearly destroyed her, but it inspired her as well. This is the result. It's all about death and dying, and if that doesn't bother you and you love Patti, you will love this. In addition to dedicating the album to her husband, "About A Boy" is about Kurt Cobain. Jeff Buckley, who contributed vocals to "Beneath The Southern Cross" and played essrage on "Fireflies" (possibly the album's most beautiful track, it also recalls "Ghost Dance" from 'Easter'), drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis less than a year after this was released. Sort of puts a new spin on things when Patti is singing "cross over, boy, cross over" with Jeff wailing in the background. It is not a commercial album (but then, Patti is not commercial), but it is wonderful, and probably the best from her late 80's/90's era.

"Gone Again" represents one of the strongest Patti Smith Albums in years, easily joining the ranks of "Horses", "Radio Ethiopia", and "Easter." People curious about Patti Smith must come at her work with an understanding that she is not a pop-star tossing out throw away music or following quickly fading trends. Her work stands alone, often as a lone voice amidst the CD stacks in your local store, offering a wholly unique view and artistry. Introspective, exploratory, challenging and literate. She is truly an American treasure.

I view the strength of her albums on their coherence and the layering of lyrical vocals over the musical composition. The band in each of its incarnations is without peer. If you want to hear a powerhouse, tight, intuitive and virtuoso band, listen to the musicianship on any of the albums I have mentioned - including this one.

With that general overview posted, let me say the two opening tracks "Gone Again" and "Beneath The Southern Cross" are a one-two opening punch that few artists could come up with in a lifetime - let alone on one album. This album is a classic. Patti's burden has always been the challenge of the comparison of each subsequent album to the masterpiece "Horses." "Radio Ethiopia", "Easter" and now "Gone Again" can be added to the Pantheon of brilliance Patti seems to create out of her life's greatest triumphs and deepest sorrows.

An incredible album.

Patti Smith's Gone Again marked the end of a hiatus both in music making and subject matter - her only album between it and the 70's was the up with people bore Dream of Life. Here, she returned to dark, meta-spiritual music, but this was profoundly marked by the death of her husband and brother, and Gone Again plays like a rally to both accept the role of death and scream against it. So, the songs are divided between songs of plaintive mourning, like the lovely "Beneath the Southern Cross", and songs that angrily chant after redemption, such as a bold remake of Dylan's "Wicked Messenger." Smith's writing is as sharp here as it was two decades earlier, and if her experiments now aren't all interesting (like the laconic 9-minute rumination on Kurt Cobain "About a Boy"), they are, for the most part rewarding, moving, and at times, laced with the punk we thought she'd left behind. The title track is a fusion of all Smith's known for - beat poetry, quick vocals, and a defiance as feisty as ever.

This is the album that finally made sense of Patti Smith to me... my inroad to her work. Thanks to Gone Again, I honestly now understand what she has been doing for the last 33 years, and why she is compared to the likes of Dyaln, and Reed.

Gone Again is easily one of the best records I have ever heard. Breathtaking. A revelation. If you have ANY meaningful interest in American music, listen to this... then go buy the rest of her albums.

Patti Smith returned from a long absence, and great loss, to present us with this masterpiece. It contains great works of beauty and power. No one writes like this, hers is a unique voice, one of great depth and integrity. "MY MADRIGAL" may be one of the most moving and beautiful songs of loss ever written. Lenny Kaye and the rest of the band is in remarkable form, complimenting Patti brilliantly. Their sound being timeless and full of kick and verve. One of the greatest by one of the greats. Highly recommended...Simon

those acoustic songs are so beautiful, it's just amazing. even though i definatly love 70's mother of punk rock patti smith, i just can't get over how gorgeous these acoustic driven songs are. anyone who loves real heartfelt music will love this. patti never fails to amaze me.

What I love about this album is the diversity. From the raging rocker "Gone Again" to the introspective acoustic numbers, this album is at times unapproachable, yet it improves as one listens over and over again. The styles vary so much from track to track, but the poetical comes through. Smith is able to paint stark images... she is indeed a poet. Music that goes from harshness to extreme beauty. A vastly mature work of an artist completely in control of her vision.