Patti Smith and Kevin Shields

Patti Smith and Kevin Shields
The Coral Sea
(PASK Records)

A couple of years ago, attendees at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London witnessed something rare and exciting. On two different nights (June 22, 2005, and Sept. 12, 2006), New York punk pioneer Patti Smith performed a special reading of her 1996 book The Coral Sea. But that was only half the fun. Accompanying her on guitars and effects was cult icon Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, whose tremolo-based guitar sound has garnered much study and praise over the years, especially of late, following the group’s recent comeback tour. Those two nights of spoken word poetry are now compiled and released on Smith and Shields’ own imprint, PASK.

The story revolves around the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, a close friend and one-time lover of Smith’s, and his trek to see the stars of the Southern Cross before his 1989 death from AIDS-related complications. He was also the man behind the camera for the famous photo of Smith that adorns the cover of her 1975 debut Horses, as well as several other Smith covers.

Performance-wise, Smith’s voice is well-suited for the recitation of poetry. It is low-pitched and sometimes rough (with her New York accent frequently seeping through), and it swims like a fish through the murky waters of Shields’ sonic backdrop. While the eulogy is somber, the performance is heated and passionate. Crescendos explode often, seemingly at random, and then die back down once again as Smith’s words twist and turn continuously, with slight pauses throughout. However, over the course of the two-hour album, there is very little to hold the interest of the casual listener. The decision to release this as a two-disc set, with each disc featuring the same performance on different nights, seems overindulgent.

Fanatics of Smith’s literary work and Shields completists will likely find plenty here to love, but for most everyone else it is simply a novelty that will probably one day make for a great collector’s item. (Jim Sheffield)