Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Christgau's Record Guide	A
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Mojo
NME	9/10
Q
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Spin

Horses is the debut studio album by American musician Patti Smith, released on December 13, 1975 on Arista Records. Smith, a fixture of the then-burgeoning New York punk rock music scene, began recording Horses with her band in 1975 after being signed to Arista Records, with John Cale being enlisted to produce the album. With its fusion of simplistic rock and roll structures and Smith's freeform, Beat poetry-infused lyrics, Horses was met with widespread critical acclaim upon its initial release. Despite a lack of airplay or a popular single to support the album, it nonetheless experienced modest commercial success, managing a top 50 placing on the US Billboard 200.

Horses has since been viewed by critics as one of the greatest and most influential albums in the history of the American punk rock movement, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time. Horses has also been cited as a key influence on a number of succeeding punk, post-punk, and alternative rock acts, including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Courtney Love, The Smiths, and Garbage.

By 1975, Patti Smith and her band had established themselves as favorites in the New York underground club scene along with acts such as Blondie and the Ramones, and the band eventually caught the attention of industry executive Clive Davis, who was scouting for new talent to sign to his new label Arista Records and eventually offered Smith a record deal. Recording sessions for Smith's debut album Horses began later that year, with Smith retaining her longtime backing band from a lengthy residency at the New York club CBGB—Jay Dee Daugherty on drums, Lenny Kaye on guitar, Ivan Kral on bass, and Richard Sohl on keyboards. Smith enlisted Welsh musician John Cale of The Velvet Underground fame to serve as the album's producer, as she was impressed by the raw sound of his own albums, such as Fear.

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