"Horses" cemented Smith as a central figure in the New York punk rock movement, alongside contemporary acts such as the Ramones, Blondie, and Talking Heads. It has been frequently cited as the first punk rock album, and one of the key recordings of the early punk rock movement. Publications such as "Q" and "Rolling Stone" have ranked it among the best punk albums of all time. "Horses" is considered a landmark for both punk and new wave music, inspiring a "raw, almost amateurish energy for the former and critical, engaging reflexivity for the latter", according to Chris Smith in his book "101 Albums That Changed Popular Music" (2009). In "The Observer", Simon Reynolds wrote: "Pipping the Ramones' first album to the post by five months, "Horses" is generally considered not just one of the most startling debuts in rock history but the spark that ignited the punk explosion." "Variety" critic David Sprague said that ""Horses"—which became the first major-label punk-rock album when Arista unleashed it in 1975—not only helped spread the gospel of Bowery art-punk around the world, it set the tone for smart, unbending female rockers of generations to come."