Covers have been an integral element of rock ‘n’ roll poet Patti Smith’s oeuvre since day one. So fans might honestly approach Twelve, a set wholly comprised of other people’s songs, with high expectations. Will she take the ’80s radio staple “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, rend it asunder, and refashion it into a mind-blowing opus, a la the Horses classic “Gloria”? Or maybe she’ll simply strip away all the source material’s production tricks, using her rough-hewn vocals to expose previously overlooked nuances, as she did with “When Doves Cry” in 2002.
Alas, neither. Taken individually, any of these cuts might enhance a tribute album. A surging “Are You Experienced?” illuminates lyrics Hendrix didn’t live long enough to fully inhabit; the acoustic rendition of Neil Young’s “Helpless” is spare and vulnerable. But aside from dipping into the Tears For Fears songbook, the risk-taking is minimal, and to a fault.
Her own “Radio Baghdad” from 2004’s Trampin’ — or any of her onstage anti-Bush screeds — offers a more provocative anti-war statement than another rendition of the Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”. And devotees already know she loves Dylan (“The Boy In The Bubble”), the Doors (“Soul Kitchen”), and Nirvana (“Smells Like Teen Spirit”). There’s nothing about Twelve that Smith couldn’t have communicated just as easily by compiling a mix disc.