Kevin Shields/Patti Smith collaboration: A review

If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you know that Kevin Shields, vocalist and guitarist for My Bloody Valentine, and punk-poet Patti Smith have recently released a collaborative effort. The album, called The Coral Sea, is a series of musical poems about photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who Smith roomed with when younger. The record is about who he was as a man and artist, and describes his tragic death from AIDS in emotional terms.

The A.V. Club reviewed it earlier in the week, and now Pitchfork has taken a crack at it as well. Pitchfork being what they are, the review is much longer and detailed, but also gives more history on the development of the album. There’s more lyrics quoted as well–”He liked to work/ He liked to feel/ He didn’t like to think/ He didn’t have to talk.”

It sounds like great stuff. If you’re just interested in seeing Shields perform live, you should know concert tickets are available for that. My Bloody Valentine tickets are on sale at Stubhub.com.