Editing Horses (album) (section)

===Critical reception===
''Horses'' was met with near-universal acclaim from critics.{{sfn|Wendell|2014|p=37}} Music journalist Mary Anne Cassata said that it was roundly hailed as "one of the most original first albums ever recorded."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Patti Smith: A Rock Visionary's New Dream |magazine=The Music Paper |location=Manhasset |volume=20 |issue=3 |date=October 1988 |last=Cassata |first=Mary Anne}}</ref> Reviewing the album for ''Rolling Stone'', [[John Rockwell]] wrote that ''Horses'' is "wonderful in large measure because it recognizes the overwhelming importance of words" in Smith's work, covering a range of themes "far beyond what most rock records even dream of."<ref name="Rockwell">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/horses-90476/ |title=Patti Smith: Shaman in the Land of a Thousand Dances |magazine=Rolling Stone |location=New York |issue=206 |date=February 12, 1976 |access-date=October 6, 2015 |last=Rockwell |first=John |author-link=John Rockwell |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922135728/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/horses-90476/ |archive-date=September 22, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Rockwell highlighted Smith's adaptations of "Gloria" and "Land of a Thousand Dances" as the most striking moments on the record, finding that she had rendered the songs "far more expansive than their original creators could have dreamed."<ref name="Rockwell"/> In ''[[Creem]]'', [[Lester Bangs]] wrote that Smith's music "in its ultimate moments touches deep wellsprings of emotion that extremely few artists in rock or anywhere else are capable of reaching", and declared that with "her wealth of promise and the most incandescent flights and stillnesses of this album she joins the ranks of people like [[Miles Davis]], [[Charles Mingus]], or the [[Bob Dylan|Dylan]] of '[[Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands|Sad Eyed Lady]]' and [[Bob Dylan World Tour 1966#The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert|Royal Albert Hall]]."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Stagger Lee Was a Woman |magazine=[[Creem]] |location=Detroit |volume=7 |issue=9 |date=February 1976 |last=Bangs |first=Lester |author-link=Lester Bangs}}</ref> ''[[The Village Voice]]''{{'}}s [[Robert Christgau]] said that while the album does not capture Smith's humor, it "gets the minimalist fury of her band and the revolutionary dimension of her singing just fine."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv12-75.php |title=Consumer Guide |newspaper=[[The Village Voice]] |location=New York |date=December 1, 1975 |access-date=October 6, 2015 |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau}}</ref>

In the British music press, ''Horses'' had some detractors.{{sfn|Shaw|2008|p=141}}{{sfn|Wendell|2014|p=38}} ''Street Life'' reviewer Angus MacKinnon found that the album's minimalist sound merely reflected Smith and her band's musical incompetence.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Patti Stumbles On |magazine=Street Life |location=London |date=November 29 – December 12, 1975 |last=MacKinnon |first=Angus}}</ref> Steve Lake derided the album in ''[[Melody Maker]]'' as an embodiment of "precisely what's wrong with rock and roll right now", panning it as "completely contrived 'amateurism'" with a "'so bad it's good' aesthetic".<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Poet and a No-Man Band... |magazine=[[Melody Maker]] |location=London |date=December 13, 1975 |last=Lake |first=Steve |page=52}}</ref> Conversely, [[Jonh Ingham]] of ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]'' penned a five-star review of ''Horses'', naming it "the record of the year" and "one of the most stunning, commanding, engrossing platters to come down the turnpike since [[John Lennon]]'s ''[[John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band|Plastic Ono Band]]''".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://jonh-ingham.blogspot.com/2014/06/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-patti-smith.html |title=La belle dame sans merci |magazine=[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]] |location=London |date=November 20, 1975 |access-date=October 6, 2015 |last=Ingham |first=Jonh |author-link=Jonh Ingham}}</ref> ''NME'' critic [[Charles Shaar Murray]] called it "an album in a thousand" and "an important album in terms of what rock can encompass without losing its identity as a musical form, in that it introduces an artist of greater vision than has been seen in rock for far too long."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Weird Scenes Inside Gasoline Alley |magazine=[[NME]] |location=London |date=November 22, 1975 |last=Murray |first=Charles Shaar |author-link=Charles Shaar Murray}}</ref> English television host and future [[Factory Records]] co-founder [[Tony Wilson]] was so enthused by the record that he made repeated attempts to book Smith and her band for an appearance on his [[ITV Granada|Granada Television]] program ''[[So It Goes (TV series)|So It Goes]]''.{{sfn|Thompson|2011|p=124}}

At the end of 1975, ''Horses'' was voted the second-best album of the year, behind Bob Dylan and [[the Band]]'s ''[[The Basement Tapes]]'', in the [[Pazz & Jop]], an annual poll of American critics published in ''The Village Voice''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres75.php |title=The 1975 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York |date=December 29, 1975 |access-date=October 6, 2015}}</ref> ''NME'' placed ''Horses'' at number 13 on its year-end list of 1975's best albums.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.nme.com/features/1975-2-1045413 |title=NME's best albums and tracks of 1975 |magazine=NME |location=London |date=October 10, 2016 |access-date=December 19, 2020}}</ref> According to writer Philip Shaw in his [[33⅓]] book profiling the album, the enthusiastic reaction to ''Horses'' from the music press quickly assuaged observers' suspicions that Smith had [[selling out|sold out]] by signing to a major label.{{sfn|Shaw|2008|p=139}} The album's sales were aided by the positive critical reception, along with substantial promotional efforts by Arista.{{sfn|Shaw|2008|p=139}}