Smith's unique treatment makes old songs new again

When it comes to covers, Patti Smith is experienced. Over the course of her eclectic, near 40-year career as playwright, poet, and Hall of Fame-certified rock star, Smith has covered everything from Allen Ginsberg poems to Van Morrison songs.

But the art-punk priestess had long dreamed of giving a full album of other people's songs her unique, nervy treatment. The realization of that dream arrives today in the form of the captivating "Twelve."

The dozen tracks (hence the title) are a motley assortment -- from Stevie Wonder to Nirvana to the Allman Brothers -- that could only find themselves rubbing shoulders on a Patti Smith album. And remarkably it feels just like that, a Patti Smith album. Even when she sticks to other writers' notes on the page, the artist in Smith is incapable of holding back her passion, her righteous rage, or her simple affection.

The undisputed high is Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Smith reconfigures the grunge anthem into an ominous, near bluegrass incantation. Banjos -- sounding as if they're being played by Satan's own pickers -- swirl dissonantly around her voice as it rises and falls with intentional cracks and moans.

The Rolling Stones ' "Gimme Shelter," which Smith performed at her Hall of Fame induction last month, shares a similar trippy atmosphere. Stinging guitar notes drop like acid rain as Smith unleashes a characteristically husky, urgent vocal.

The politically defiant aspect of Smith's persona emerges in a ragged, piano-driven take on Wonder's masterful "Pastime Paradise," and a stripped back rendition of Paul Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble," which is another boiling cauldron of banjos and acoustic guitars.

The 60-year-old singer takes a more straightforward approach on several tracks. It works well for a tender, accordion-enhanced read of Neil Young's "Helpless" but falls flat on a rote run-through of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."

There is a certain symmetry to Smith opening "Twelve" with Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" One side of her first single in 1974 was a rendition of the Hendrix-associated "Hey Joe." Then as now she takes the vision of a kindred spirit in a new direction. At their very best her enhancements make the songs a living testament to their creators.