Patti Smith - Twelve

Ever imagine you'd hear a rendition of Smells Like Teen Spirit thrashed out on a fiddle and littered with spontaneous, ephemeral poetry? Witness Everybody Wants to Rule the World being beaten into submission and dragged out of the 80s by a bossa nova beat? See the day that Stevie Wonder's Pastime Paradise was snared back from Coolio?

Fresh from her induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame (US, that is, not the confused mess that the UK's recently constructed HoF has quickly become – Robbie Williams aye?), Twelve Songs marks something of a stellar, multi-faceted collision between those who have influenced Patti Smith and a handful of those she has gone on to inspire. Vintage staples from the The Doors, Hendrix, Dylan and the Stones (to name only a few) are reinterpreted with a soulful acoustic energy from Smith, unhindered in bringing new textures to the table - a case and point being a show-stopping rendition of Neil Young's Helpless. A clear testament to the timelessness of the great troubadour's inimitable timbre. [Dave Kerr]