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| | Twelve | | | Music Artist : | | Patti Smith | | Music Style : | | Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | | Record Label : | | Sony | | Release Date : | | 2007-04-24 | | Store Price : | | $8.99 | | Artistopia's Price: $8.99 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Are You Experienced?
2. Everybody Wants To Rule The World
3. Helpless
4. Gimme Shelter
5. Within You Without You
6. White Rabbit
7. Changing Of The Guards
8. The Boy In The Bubble
9. Soul Kitchen
10. Smells Like Teen Spirit
11. Midnight Rider
12. Pastime Paradise
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 Skeptical At First, But Then, Pleasantly Surprised
Submitted on: 2008-05-07 |
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Every diehard fan of a particular band or musician at one time or another revisits the thought of "It'd be great if he/she/they covered (insert name of other favorite musician's song here)".
Being a casual, but persistent fan of Patti Smith, I hadn't given it much thought in her case. So, when it first came out and I read a review of "Twelve", I was a little skeptical when I saw the songs she had chosen; enough so, that I didn't immediately rush out to buy the album.
Recently, I was on a plane, and perused the CD choices in various categories available for listening. One of them was "Twelve", and I listened to most of it, was pleasantly surprised, and ended up buying it.
After listening to it a few times with better quality sound and listening environment than on a cross country flight (it doesn't take much), Smith's choice of covers and the way she put her own unique signature on them is even better than I had expected.
Ms. Smith wrote some comments in the liner notes about how she ended up choosing the songs she did, which allows the listener to gain a deeper meaning and context as well. In those notes, she also reveals how her daily life is guided by chance and small miracles, which spill over into her art.
For starters, on the cover is a picture of a tambourine made by, and given to Smith by Robert Mapplethorpe in the late 60s. Over the years, her art has been informed in large part by the deep and often spiritual relationships she's had in her life, including her friendship with Mapplethorpe.
Smith is often perceived as harsh and abrasive, which can be true, but she also has a very gentle, fragile emotional side that comes through
beautifully in many of her own songs (arguably more so in recent years), as well as in the ones she chose for "Twelve".
So, at first I was a little skeptical, but then was pleasantly surprised at the sound and "feel" of the cover songs on this record. |
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Forever a Patti fan
Submitted on: 2008-04-25 |
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| I'm only rating this 4 stars because I'm a bit dissapointed that it's not new material. I think most of the covers are great (especially "Smells like Teen Spirit"). Hoping she comes out with a new album soon. |
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Not bad
Submitted on: 2008-04-12 |
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| I've always waxed hot 'n cold on Patti Smith, but she does all right by several of the songs on here. If anything, I wish she'd dug a little deeper into the catalogs of some of the folks she covers here; for example, Smith doing Grace Slick's "White Rabbit" is good enough, but I'd have loved to hear her have a go at "Eskimo Blue Day" or "Two Heads," two of Slick's more "out there" songs. But this is a quibble, especially when I never could've guessed that Patti Smith could cover The Allman Brothers and actually make "Midnight Rider" her own in a super version. This is a covers album that I won't mind playing again at all! |
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 Great voices, but she doesn't make the songs her own
Submitted on: 2008-01-31 |
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| I love Patti, but this album is really just filler. On none of the songs do we get much anything new. Sure it's amusing hearing her sing (beautifully) on material we associate with others, but why? Do we need these faithful cover versions? Ultimately I can see no reason why. |
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 "Twelve" Will Test Your System and Mirror Your Mood
Submitted on: 2008-01-07 |
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| The first time I listened to "Twelve", it was through a Bose car system. Even with active feedback, the mix seemed ponderously bass heavy, flat, and just plain bad. I almost didn't spin the disc again. Later, I listened to six-of-"Twelve" via a competent audio system in my workout room. The overall sound balance improved a bit, but the bass still wasn't right and the sound stage remained cartoon-flat. While "Twelve" was suitable for bench pressing, it seemed a mere shadow of "Horses". The disc was approximately one song away from the loser bin. So I popped it into my main system and dialed up "Gimme Shelter". Eureka! Audio by Van Alstine did its magic. The kick drum knocked me onto the sofa, the guitar chords bit sweetly, and Patti Smith emerged from between the speakers with a growl in her voice that sent shivers down my spine. Wow. I played it again...and again. Once I could hear it properly, I understood that "Twelve" is not a work to be listened to end-to-end...rather, it's twelve singular jewels (hence the title) to be examined carefully, one-at-a-time, according to one's mood. Given the right equipment and perspective, this is exemplary stuff. |
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