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trampin'
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trampin' Image
Metascore
74

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 8 Ratings

  • Summary: The legendary rocker's ninth album is a lowercase effort (song titles included), featuring her daughter Jesse on piano on the title track, as well as the same backing band that has been with her for the past decade.

Top Track

My Blakean Year
In my Blakean year I was so disposed Toward a mission yet unclear Advancing pole by pole Fortune breathed into my ear Mouthed a simple ode One road... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 22
  3. Negative: 1 out of 22
  1. Mojo
    100
    In a way, Trampin' is to this decade what Horses was to the '70s: a repudiation of its time, and the promise of a way forward. [Apr 2004, p.98]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. Billboard
    90
    Smith's vision is as rapturous as ever, and it receives its most focused, impassioned treatment here.
  3. Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
    83
    No, she hasn't regained her sense of humor, but aren't you fast losing yours?
  4. The Guardian
    80
    Smith's approach to the bellicosity post 9/11 contains - surprisingly for someone so full of piss and thunder - a fair amount of faith, hope and pleas for tolerance.
  5. Pitchfork
    71
    Trampin' is Smith at her most deferential: She looks to figures like Gandhi, King, Anderson, and even Bob Dylan on "Stride of the Mind" for spiritual guidance. While this approach may be valid and even occasionally compelling, for the most part it robs the album of most of its urgency and dulls its outrage.
  6. ShakingThrough.net
    68
    Trampin' is an improvement on Gung Ho, Smith's previous release, if only because she hasn't sounded this committed and politically charged in years.
  7. The Wire
    20
    A dull, clunky, unjustifiably smug AOR rock album: no more, no less. [#243, p.71]
    All this publication's reviews

See all 22 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. steveg
    Nov 14, 2004
    10
    This is the best CD I've heard this year. She's an old fav of mine though I haven't particularly been into her lately. Great This is the best CD I've heard this year. She's an old fav of mine though I haven't particularly been into her lately. Great writing. Beautiful slow songs and some fine rockers. Ghandi is a classic. I'm much more a fan of live music than CDs and she kicks it live, too. Get this CD if you like the cerebral and the rockin'! … Expand
  2. JDaly
    May 2, 2004
    10
    One of her best...ranks up there with Radio Ethiopia and Gone Again, just a bit below Horses
  4. AdrianEC
    Apr 28, 2004
    9
    A beautiful and powerful album from the poet with politics in heart and power in her mind.
  5. TerryD
    May 16, 2004
    5
    Sorry - don't care, don't care, don't care. Some of this album is "nice" - so what? Give me "Horses" or any of the first three Sorry - don't care, don't care, don't care. Some of this album is "nice" - so what? Give me "Horses" or any of the first three albums anyday. Patti, you really went down the wrong road when you "learned to sing". The spirituality makes me want to vomit. The whole record sounds pretentious to me, certainly not personal like "Horses". I don't need to be preached to!… Collapse

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