12. Patti SmithHorses
Flawless again. She’s a poet! I knew who she was, she was in my peripheral, but I discovered her, god, maybe ten years ago. The beauty of being in your 30s is the beauty of being able to admit that you didn’t hear The Wipers first. Or that you knew the Hole version of ‘Credit In A Straight World’ before you knew the Young Marble Giants version. When you’re 20 you’re a little more self-conscious about it. But yeah, and I’m glad that I had a relationship with her as an adult. I didn’t grow up listening to her as a teenager at all. In Arkansas she wasn’t on the radio. God, that’s another record where every song is my favourite song. ‘Kimberly’? My god. ‘Free Money’? I don’t even know where to start. It’s poetry set to music and it’s done so well. Other people have tried to do that and it doesn’t really work and she just really pulled it off in a way that was beautiful and not trying too hard. She’s effortlessly cool and she gets cooler.
