Hear a New Patti Smith Song, “April Fool”

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It isn’t April anymore, but Patti Smith is no slave to gimmicky time pegs, so she’s releasing a new track called “April Fool” the second week of May. The lead single from Banga, her first album of original material since 2004’s Trampin’, features the distinctive contribution of Television frontman Tom Verlaine — one of many collaborators on a record that also includes Smith’s son and daughter. Evoking both youth and nostalgia, “April Fool” finds Smith’s voice a bit softer and more polished, but no less impassioned, than usual. Listen to it at NPR, and if you like what you hear, the song is available for purchase via Smith’s website. Banga, which features tracks about everything from last year’s earthquake in Japan to Amerigo Vespucci’s 1497 voyage to the New World to the death of Amy Winehouse, comes out June 5th.