Top of the Pops

PATTI SMITH: HORSES (Arista; $6.98). The author of two published books of verse, Patti Smith has worked as a musician intermittently over the past year or so, mainly in New York underground night spots. Dylan turned up at a performance recently--an event that confers rock's official blessing. Her debut record, like her wild-eyed poems, reveals an artist who is gifted but undisciplined. Leading off with Gloria in excelsis deo ("Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine"), her dark voice projects a tough, fragile, street-girl image. The showcase number, Horses, invokes Rimbaud and glorifies mutilation ("He opened his throat, his vocal cords started shooting like mad pituitary glands"). One of Smith's chants is "gotta lose control," but if she acquires a little, she could become a strong original voice in rock.

THE WHO BY NUMBERS (MCA; $6.98). Following his disappointing rock opera Quadrophenia, The Who's chief composer, Peter Townshend, has his dropout muse back in residence. The British rock quartet, unsettled by internal squabbles and individual efforts at solo LPs and films, pulled together for some properly granitic music making this time. Though there is no formal story line, the album is nonetheless slyly conceptual. Townshend's nine songs, plus John Entwistle's Success Story, evoke a rock star's fight against time. Nicky Hopkins' vigorous keyboards, added to the band's own mix of acoustic and electric instruments, produce intense, powerful, no-nonsense music and an album that is something to cheer about.

LINDA RONSTADT: PRISONER IN DISGUISE (Asylum; $6.98). A year ago, Ronstadt's amazing Heart Like a Wheel album helped make her top woman singer in the Top 40s, or pretty close to it. Ronstadt sings about loss and desperation; her big, beautiful soprano radiates vulnerability. She comes naturally to heartbreakers like Dolly Parton's country classic / Will Always Love You or the old Smokey Robinson hit Tracks of My Tears. On Heat Wave Ronstadt breaks into a real rocker.

ANDREW GOLD (Asylum; $6.98). From the opening cut, That's Why I Love You, through nine more original songs, Gold's fresh melodic imagination never wavers. His baritone is light and pleasing. Like Stevie Wonder, he sometimes operates as a one-man band. On Love Hurts,

Gold performs the vocals and plays the organ, piano, percussion, drum, guitars and bass parts.

BONNIE RAITT: HOME PLATE (Warner Bros.; $6.98). Raitt fans patiently wait for Bonnie to make a record equal to the promise of her talent. Home Plate is close, yet still off base. Turning away more and more from the eloquent blues guitar that was the mainspring of her early success, Raitt draws most of her musical energy in her sweet husky voice. Songs like Sugar Mama, Good Enough and I'm Blowin' Away are good. However, she squanders her ability on soap opera ballads like My First Night Alone Without You.

TOM JANS: THE EYES OF AN ONLY CHILD (Columbia; $6.98). In the preholiday avalanche of LPs by major music acts, this attractive album might be overlooked. Using the standard country music themes of loneliness, moving around and adultery, Jans writes in the restless, romantic vein of a young man. Out of Hand, his tale of a hard-lovin' man who meets his match, unfolds against twanging guitars and the gentle percussion of a rural roadhouse band.

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