Customer Reviews

Trampin'

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am not a Patti Smith fan and only listened to HORSES once or twice in my twenties. After reading MOJO's review of TRAMPIN', I gave the album a shot, but wasn't prepared for such a powerful, eloquent performance.

Like BORN TO RUN, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON and BLONDE ON BLONDE, it's no stretch to call this an historic issue for many reasons. The songs are consistently well-crafted. A pity the moguls at Sony failed to include lyrics in the package since the words are so potent and evocative. The opener, JUBILEE, is especially lyrical and showcases a powerful, burnished voice that fits the music like a glove.

Unlike most albums, great thought was given to the sequence of songs -- which range from pensive to explosive. By the time RADIO BAGHDAD bursts through your system, the voice, the music, the production itself, will take your breath away. GANDHI, in particular, will become an underground classic. Indeed, it's been going 'round and 'round in my head since I first heard it.

Technically, it's been years since I heard a band recorded with such nuance. All the pieces are well-defined. The dynamic range of the recording is awesome, and the voice is placed exactly where it should be. Audiophiles will put this CD in their demonstration rack, but so will those who believe rock is a life-force and a potent political art form, too.

Nothing I've heard in the past five years approaches the quality of this release. I'm now a Patti Smith fan at the grand age of 52, and plan to buy a copy of HORSES this weekend. TRAMPIN' reminds us that in the cesspool of the American record industry -- in which 90% of new rock releases are throwaway -- some smart producers (in this case, Patti Smith and her band) may turn your head around.

We're living through a terribly dark time in 2004, and this beautifully crafted album is a burst of light.

Five huge, freakin' stars.

I will readily admit that I have not heard much of the latter day (i.e. post-1988) work of Patti Smith, although the buzz on her last album, 2000's "Gung Ho" was quite good. Out of curiosity I picked up this album, and I must say I was shocked how good this CD is.

"Trampin'" (11 tracks, 63 min.) is Patti Smith's 9th studio album. But in sound and spirit, it is a sequel to her debut album "Horses" from 1975. Not surprisingly, there are some heavy political undertones to this album. Musically, there are no weak tracks here. The songs can essentially be divided in 2 groups: the "rockers" and the "ballads". Among the former, the monumental "Gandhi" (9+ min.) and "Radio Baghdad" (12+ min.) are standouts. Among the latter, the title track (featuring Patti's daughter on piano), and "Trespasses" are the best. Patti's band, including long time guitaris Lenny Kaye, sound tight throughout.

I cannot emphasize enough how much this album took me by surprise. Patti Smith has been around for a long, long time but clearly she still has some things on her mind, and finds a way to write strong new songs. One negative about the CD is that there is virtually no information about the album in the CD case. I literally had to look hard to even find the song titles (forget about hoping for the lyrics of songs!). That aside, this album is strongly recommended!

Patti Smith's Trampin is eaily one of the year's best albums. Music this fresh, vital, smart and kick ass makes a mockery of the faceless corporate "product" shoved on us by the music "industry."

Patti Smith excels in so many ways that she is easily taken for granted. Lyrically, this album is poetic, incisive, cutting and spiritual. Allusions are made to Blake, historic Babylon, Buddhist symbols, war imagery and more. She writes lyrics more interesting than than the books of most authors.

One example, on the hypnotic, rocking "Radio Baghdad," she alludes to the current American destruction of the birthplace of civilization, ancient Baghdad and Babylon. "We invented the zero...but we are nothing to you...," referring to American bombs falling on the city.

Vocally, she does it all. From fiercely protective maternal wails to gently soothing reassurance, her voice has grown deeper and more resonant over the years. She now sounds worldly, experienced, knowing and compassionate.

The mood and tempos of the songs vary from stripped down punk rock to gentle ballads, to Marian Anderson's "Trampin." Yet the overall feel is energetic, rocking, kick ass music that makes you think and feel and move all at once.

Few musicians have continued to grow and reflect, and make music so uncompromising and vital. (Johnny Cash and Tom Waits are the only two that come to mind). These stand like islands of passion, integrity and the true spirit of rock and roll, amid the commercial wasteland of prepackaged "product" foisted on us year in and out.

This goes not only for Patti Smith, but the entire band as well. They are one of the most seriously under rated talents in rock. Witness Lenny Kaye's amazing guitar work, from Cash like ballad precision on "Mother Rose" to remarkably energetic garage band/surfer/Dick Dale sounding pumping on "Stride of the Mind" and other tracks. This band has been together a long time, and created shockingly original and vital music.

Thank you and congratulations to Patti Smith and her group, for keeping it real in a prefab world. Some of us out here still care and really appreciate it.

I listen to a lot of music, music of all kinds, but this is something special. This disc has guts and beauty, politics and spirituality, kick-ass, punk-edged rock and roll, vast and ambitious historical meditations and drama, straight-out essence of gospel, and an overall lyricism that is just stunning. Its essential hopefulness shatters the gloom of this American year, and opens a way forward. The first track, Jubilee ("Jubilee, Oh my land...Be a jubilee"), makes an anthem of this Biblical, Hebrew word, and you know immediately that you are in for something big, something prophetic, something almost inhumanly (but very humanly) hopeful. This is visionary stuff. If you are like me, you will be stunned by the truthfulness of "Radio Baghdad," and nearly moved to tears of joy and hope when "Trampin" follows and closes the album. And you will probably play "In My Blakean Year" more times than you can remember playing any other recent song. No music has been able to reach the sorrow and rage I have felt at the facts that Americans were torturing prisoners in Iraq and that the deliberate erosion of human rights and the justifications of torture came from the highest levels of our government. Until Patti Smith's TRAMPIN'. It has converted that sorrow and rage into hopeful determination. It has shaken me out of the gloom and reminded me that a hopeful vision of a better way is the best antidote to what looks like the triumph of evil. The last words of the last track sum it up: "I'm tryin' to make heaven my home." But the anger and the sweetness and the sorrow and the hope and the irrepressible determination of this music have to be heard to be understood. This music is convincing. Sorry to gush, but sometimes you just have to say how it hits you.

Patti Smith pulls it off!! Surely right up there with 'Easter' and 'Horses', this is a great album. Gandhi and Radio Baghdad are Patti at her best, with the band playing like there's no tomorrow. Lenny Kaye is in fine form, but the whole band is very solid, and to top it all off, Patti really has something to say, truly written in the style of an accomplished poet. And, suprisingly, the years have been kind to her voice. While sounding beautiful on songs like 'Mother Rose', she still has 'the growl', which is in full force more than once on this album. After repeated listenings, it just keeps getting better, and I liked Trampin' the first time I heard it.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the liner notes are almost non existant, however it is mentioned that 'Trampin' and 'Gandhi' were recorded live in the studio. Most bands would need massive overdubs to get the sound of 'Gandhi'. Quite a testament to the band, considering Patti and the band produced the album as well. Why in the world Columbia chose not to print the lyrics is beyond me, however they are available at pattismith.net, and well worth reading.

At a time when pop music is filled with the flotsam and jetsam of the likes of Madonna and Britney (not to mention so many others), Patti Smith continues to be the real thing--a poet, a priestess, and a mature woman living fully in the world. "Trampin'" exemplifies all of this--and more!

Not only is this the best Patti Smith album in 10 years but this is the best album I've heard in the past 10 years. This lady never gets her due. There is no question in my mind that she is one of the Top 10 Songwriters of all time. For me, to just sit and listen to her lyrics and marvel at where such lyrics could come from is everything to me. This is true genious.

Born in 1946 Chicago, Patti Smith had an interestingly rocky beginning, growing up in New Jersey under the watchful eye of a Jehovah Witness mother determined to instill religious belief into her daughter--who ultimately rejected straitjacket concepts and departed for New York, where she mixed with the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe, Sam Shepard, and Alan Ginsberg and dabbled in poetry, journalism, and performance art. In 1975 she suddenly released the album HORSES and was an overnight iconoclast. Over the years both public profile and recordings have been up and down--but regardless of the artistic merit of any one particular song or album, Smith has never been less than interesting. And the 2004 TRAMPIN' is Smith at her finest. It is certainly her best album since the 1996 GONE AGAIN, and it may in fact be her best work to date.

TRAMPIN' is full of treasurers, but it seems to me that the key selection on the release is "Peaceable Kingdom," a delicately smooth song that envokes loss, failure, and separation primarily in order to broach the notion that there is a way to repair what is broken; the difficultly lies in finding out what that way is. It might be through celebration ("Jubilee") or recognition of mortality and personal integrity ("Trespasses"); it might be through transcendent love ("Mother Rose"), intellectuality ("My Blakean Year"), or spiritual insights ("Ghandi.") One thing is for sure: it isn't through more destruction ("Radio Bagdad.")

As always, Smith has the unexpected gift of being able to take a scalding sense of outrage and transform it into art--and to take art and use it like a razor, slashing at human stupidity. At her best, however, she tempers her contempt with mercy, and TRAMPIN' has this in abundance. Every single cut is a wonder, the album works as a whole, and the musicianship is flawless throughout. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

It's hard to believe that an artist that had pretty much been given up for gone is back with a album of such stunning quality that I, for one, would have no problem saying it is the best relase I have heard in the last year. There isn't anything specfic that I could add that other reviewers have not already stated: the band is superb; the songs are outstanding in their depth and breadth; the production is flawless. I would just add that Patti Smith's vocals are so extraordinarily fine that I can't believe it. This is an album for all-time.

Patti Smith, Poet Laureate of Punk , is back with a great album. I think her best album. Well, at least since Dream of Life-which I wore out back then.
The album starts out with a jubilant celebration of a patented Patti Smith and band rocker called "Jubilee" and then never lets up. The grooves and guitar work early in the album deliciously remind me of a bit slower-paced Jim Carroll Band with its raggedy, sparse, hard-driving punk guitar and downright nihilistic drumwork.(Jim Carroll and Patti are brother and sister, aren't they? And PJ Harvey is their offspring? I guess that's all rumor...)
On this album I don't think Patti has ever written with such introspection and melody. Take the song "Trespasses." This gospel-tinged gorgeously written tune could easily be sung by the thousands of fluff-chick country diva's out there, but Patti and band make it sound like the first song Loretta Lynn might sing after she'd been shackled in the basement of CBGB's for twenty years. Same goes for the title song, "Trampin'." It borrows heavily from the...for to carry me ho-ome....gospel song, but Patti makes it all her own.
Usually when lesser artists reach with such pretentious titles like "My Blakean Year"- you expect a half-baked allusion or two, but when Patti does it you don't even question it, you just bow down, listen, and appreciate.
And who else today is writing about Gandi? How out of fashion is that, America.
Which gets to the12-minute epic, "Radio Baghdad." Now I've had as much problem as anyone with artists reciting poetry through some half-baked musical lilt on their albums, it's sort of like a music/poetry bait and switch, it seems, as music is about rhythm, and sudden jolts into spoken word are usually intrusive. Especially after the first listen. But Patti Smith has got it right on "Radio Baghdad." Her spoken word leads into a massive wave of hard-driving guitars and crescendo musically as well as lyrically throughout this incredible diatribe of Iraq and America's devastation there (Its goose bump time when Patti starts yelling "Shock and Awe!") It is one of her finest moments and it would be great to see her perform it.
Trampin' is a reason to believe in poetry and music.