Picks and Pans Review: Easter

Patti Smith Group

The eclectic Ms. Smith has her skinny pins planted firmly (some might say mired) in a verbal tradition rather than a musical one, so it’s something of a breakthrough for her to have a tuneful—and commercial—single cut. Because the Night, which she co-wrote with fellow New Jerseyite Bruce Springsteen, is already on the charts, evincing a strong melodic vocal that may lift Smith from punk to popular appeal. Her image-conscious, surrealistic streams of semiconsciousness (with co-writing by guitarist Lenny Kaye, Television’s Tom Verlaine and others) keep the rest of the tracks in the typical Smith groove.