Aerosmith

Aerosmith
Get Your Wings
Toys In The Attic
Rocks
Draw The Line
Greatest Hits
Permanent Vacation
Pump
Get A Grip
Big Ones
Nine Lives
Just Push Play
Honkin' On Bobo


Aerosmith (Columbia ’73) Rating: B+
This debut album delivers full bore boogie/blues rock that makes you wanna move. While most people are familiar with a heavy Rolling Stones influence (for years the band was dogged by a “poor man’s Stones” label), The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, and the blues are also in evidence. Steven Tyler sings in a deeper pitched voice than he would later employ (reminiscent of how Ozzy Osbourne sounded so different on the first Black Sabbath album) while keeping in check the vocal acrobatics that would later become his calling card. A lack of originality threatens to keep Aerosmith grounded, but this Boston band’s catchy songs, unpretentious swagger, slinky guitar licks, and vigorous backbeats generally manage to seize the day. After all, a solid, straight-ahead hard rock band need not apologize to anyone. This is a consistent LP (Aerosmith’s greatest asset) that contains some strong songs, in particular the Stonesy “Mama Kin” (later covered by Guns n’ Roses) and the epic power ballad (one of the first) “Dream On,” whose brilliantly coiled intensity the band would never quite match again. In short, this is a cool band with all the right moves: a dynamic singer (who would soon progress by leaps and bounds), a punchy rhythm section (the guts of any great groove band), and some real nice guitar interplay. Still, on this game debut a certain excitement is missing that I can never quite put my finger on, that often-indefinable quality that makes good rise to great.

Get Your Wings (Columbia ‘74) Rating: A-
Despite lacking a masterpiece on the level of “Dream On,” Get Your Wings is a decided improvement on the debut overall. This improvement is because Aerosmith admirably varies, expands, and solidifies their sound, perhaps spurred on by their new alliance with producer Jack Douglas, who would help guide the band’s next several studio efforts. Starting with one of the catchiest riff-fests in the entire Aerosmith catalog, “Same Old Song And Dance” also effectively adds horns into the mix, while “Lord Of The Thighs” is a darkly chugging blues rocker that expertly showcases Steven Tyler’s attitude soaked delivery and clever raunchery. Elsewhere, the aptly titled “Spaced” is an enjoyable experimental oddity, “S.O.S. (Too Bad)” rocks both hard and well, “Seasons Of Wither” is a haunting ballad, and their cover of The Yardbirds “Train Kept A Rollin’” is flat-out definitive. Boasting a live ambience, the guitars really cook on this track, as Aerosmith forever claims the song as their own. Granted, the songwriting isn’t always up to snuff (“Woman Of The World” and “Pandora’s Box” are both pleasant but perfunctory), but Get Your Wings contains some great greasy hard rock.

Toys In The Attic (Columbia ‘75) Rating: A
This classic hard rock album contains “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion,” two immortal “classic rock” radio station staples, and several other stellar songs. “Walk This Way” features a deathless Joe Perry riff along with a great Tyler rap (in fact, a case could be made that this was the first rap metal song), while “Sweet Emotion” has a great sing along chorus and plenty of attitude. Starting things off is “Toys In The Attic,” which sports a breakneck chug that immediately announces the band’s big step up in class, and when Tyler announces “it’s a sunny day outside my window” at the end of “Uncle Salty” damn it if it doesn’t brighten my day. “Adam’s Apple” features catchy riffs and horns alongside some typically clever Tyler lyrics, while “Big Ten Inch Record” is a jokey little blues ditty that spices things up with a levity lacking in most hard rock. Most of the album showcases Joe Perry’s grungy guitar riffs and Steven Tyler’s salacious lyrics, while the rest of the band cooks up unsinkable grooves throughout. Another highlight on an album full of highlights is the catchy r&b of “No More No More,” whose serious lyrics about the downside of the rock n’ roll lifestyle shows the flip side to the band's usual good time obsessions with sex, drugs, and double entendres. Finally, “Round And Round” is a lumbering stomper that showcases Aerosmith at their heaviest and nastiest (not unusual for a Brad Whitford penned song), while the sweeping power ballad “You See Me Crying” closes things out with an excellent orchestral effort that’s arguably the album’s best moment. Throw in the two infectious singles and you have a consistently rewarding and varied package, pulled off with considerable panache.

Rocks (Columbia ‘76) Rating: A
Aerosmith had steadily improved with each release, developing their craft while seizing a major share of the American hard rock market. Although it contains no hits, Rocks showcases a really good hard rock band at the peak of their powers. Consistently catchy, the album is chock full of Aerosmith’s prime assets: memorable riffs and arrangements, plenty of attitude, and charismatic singing (including underrated harmonies). Beginning with the sinister guitar and squealing vocals of “Back In The Saddle” and then tearing into the funky “Last Child,” Rocks rarely lets up and is a cohesive, compulsive listen throughout. Although the aforementioned songs are the best known, there’s not a dog in the bunch, including the relentless “Rats In The Cellar” and the propulsive double-tracked vocals of “Sick As A Dog,” which showcases the band’s keen pop sense. Other highlights include the chugging metallic thumper “Nobody’s Fault,” the catchy “na na na’s” of the terrific “Lick And A Promise,” and “Home Tonight,” another convincing power ballad that closes out the band's best album in fine style.

Draw The Line (Columbia ‘77) Rating: B+
This is the album on which Aerosmith allegedly began their drug-induced decline during which partying became more important than tunes, and it definitely is a notch below their previous two releases. Still, at this point in time rumors of the band’s demise were greatly exaggerated, because this is another good groove record whose funky backbeats and inventive guitar licks are matched to Steven Tyler’s ear piercing vocal acrobatics. Lyrically, Aerosmith focus on getting wasted and of course sex (lots of sex!), but they also manage to throw in an epic fantasy story on the dramatic “Kings And Queens,” the album’s best song. The band also has a knack for throwing in some rolling piano or harmonica when things threaten to grow stale, and though sometimes the songwriting isn’t up to par (“Critical Mass,” “The Hand That Feeds”) they’re usually smart enough to just let the guitars (and Joey Kramer’s insistent drumming) show the way. The grungy title track and the catchy if paranoid “I Wanna Know Why” are top flight Aerosmith by any measure, but it must be said that there are fewer memorable melodies here than on the band’s best albums, and that Tyler’s lyrics are at times labored and cliché ridden (“Can’t Get It Up,” “Sight For Sore Eyes”). However, the album’s impressive overall momentum is more important than any individual songs, and for all its faults Draw The Line still manages to deliver a dirty good time.

Greatest Hits (Columbia ‘80) Rating: B+
This is a solid sampling of ten of Aerosmith's best (and most popular) songs from their best years. Greatest Hits starts off with “Dream On,” their greatest song, and then goes onto the catchy “Same Old Song And Dance.” The compilation next culls the four most obvious songs from Toys In The Attic and Rocks (“Sweet Emotion,” “Walk This Way,” “Last Child,” Back In The Saddle”) before tacking on the stellar “Kings And Queens” and “Draw The Line.” Unfortunately, two weak cover songs, “Come Together” (from the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band movie) and “Remember (Walking In The Sand),” round out the album on a less than exemplary note. The predictable song selection here concentrates solely on the hits, so this album is really more for non-fans who simply want a short snapshot of the band. Fans of the band will want to dig considerably deeper than what this skimpy collection offers, especially since some songs (most noticeably “Sweet Emotion”) have been needlessly edited. In truth, there has never been a completely satisfactory Aerosmith overview compiled, but at least this one is aptly titled.

Permanent Vacation (Geffen ‘87) Rating: B
Drugs brought this band down hard in the late seventies and early eighties. The low point came when guitarist Joe Perry briefly left the fold; they recorded Rock and A Hard Place without him before he returned for 1985’s Done With Mirrors, the bands first album for Geffen. The album sold poorly, but two things then happened that allowed the band to generate one of the most remarkable comebacks in rock n’ roll history. First the band entered rehab and got clean, and then Run DMC recorded a cover version of “Walk This Way,” even inviting Perry and Tyler to perform on it. When the song became a crossover smash hit the band was suddenly in the limelight again, and Permanent Vacation made them superstars all over again by spawning three smash singles. Indeed, the catchy ragtime swagger of “Rag Doll,” the undeniable, horn heavy pop rock of “Dude (Looks Like A Lady),” and the sappy power ballad “Angel” were all inescapable radio (and MTV) tracks, making Aerosmith’s amazing comeback from near oblivion complete. However, it should be noted that this sleek new version of the band differed from the old one considerably. In particular, Bruce Fairbairn’s slick production (replete with at times cluttery horn arrangements) provided a hard-hitting but obviously commercial touch, while song doctors such as Desmond Child, Holly Knight, and Jim Vallance were brought aboard to tailor the band’s sound to fit into the current hard rock market. The strategy worked smashingly, but it also meant that now the band was competing with Bon Jovi instead of Led Zeppelin. Still, there are some good songs (“Hearts Done Time,” “Girl Keeps Coming Apart”) here, and for a band that had recently returned from the ranks of the has-beens this was a harbinger of better things to come.

Pump (Geffen ‘89) Rating: A-
With Pump Aerosmith was officially back at the top of their game. Filled with catchy, speedy rockers such as “Young Lust,” “The Other Side” (minor hits both), and the explosive “Voodoo Medicine Man,” Pump's big production (again courtesy of Fairburn) and Joey Kramer’s muscular drumming makes these rockers rage. The overtly commercial “Love In An Elevator” (the album’s biggest hit) is irresistibly catchy and charmingly raunchy, and it was good to see Aerosmith’s mindset back on sex instead of concentrating on drugs. In fact, “Monkey On My Back” is about the band’s fight to stay clean (it’s a daily struggle). Elsewhere, “My Girl” swings and “Don’t Get Mad, Get Even” is a fine swamp blues, but better still is the very fine “F.I.N.E.” (which actually stands for “F**ked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional”), while several strange interludes further give Pump its own interesting flavor. As for the other hit singles, “What It Takes” is an outstanding ballad featuring a great fadeout ending, while the Grammy winning “Janie’s Got A Gun” is a strong story song about child abuse that achieves a depth that Aerosmith rarely aspires to - plus it rocks. Steven Tyler is in excellent voice throughout, while the dual guitars of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford supply plenty of hooks, making Pump easily their heaviest and best comeback album.

Get A Grip (Geffen ‘92) Rating: B+
Another fine Aerosmith album, Get A Grip is notable for its stellar sound quality, several smash hit singles, and Tyler’s best overall vocal performance ever. Still, the album lacks some of the raw urgency and consistency of Pump, with some obvious filler (“Get A Grip,” “Flesh”) padding out its overly labored 62-minutes. It just seems like the album didn’t come to the band as naturally this time out; one can’t help but notice all the co-songwriting credits. Even some of its better songs, such as “Eat The Rich,” sound a little like retreads, in this case a rehash of “Young Lust” but with better lyrics. In addition, Fairbairn goes overboard with the production effects, and several of the songs are extended longer than necessary. As for the overplayed hits, “Living On The Edge” delivered epic social commentary, “Cryin’” was an explosive if overly repetitive power ballad, “Crazy” was a country tinged ballad, and “Amazing” was a dramatically orchestrated piano ballad about finally seeing the light (i.e. getting straight). These songs, none of which are classics but all of which I'd classify as "guilty pleasures" if they weren't so overplayed, were notable for their popular videos, which helped launch the acting careers of Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler (Steven's daughter) and kept the band red hot on the charts even though grunge was supposed to have killed off all such “dinosaur” hard rockers. But Aerosmith always seem to persevere, and by and large Get A Grip deserved its popularity, especially since some of its best songs, such as the bruising Joe Perry-sung groove rocker “Walk On Down” and the strangely atmospheric “Gotta Love It,” were among its least commercial.

Big Ones (Geffen ‘94) Rating: B+
This compilation is useful mostly because it puts all of their late period hits on one disc. It also includes two good new songs (“Walk On Water” and “Blind Man”) and makes the excellent “Deuces Are Wild” available for the first time on any Aerosmith cd (it originally appeared on The Beavis And Butthead Experience). In short, Big Ones is one-stop shopping for fans who want to sample Aerosmith’s late ‘80s-early ‘90s material, and it contains a generous selection of songs from Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get A Grip.

Nine Lives (Geffen ‘97) Rating: B
The band supposedly had all kinds of problems getting this one done; thus the four-year absence since Get A Grip. Fortunately, Aerosmith remain a reliable rock 'n' roll institution, delivering a hard-hitting affair that’s less overtly commercial than recent efforts. It hurt them at the gate, too, being a relative commercial disappointment, though they then rebounded with the sickeningly commercial “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing,” a #1 hit single from the Armageddon soundtrack. Despite the by now usual assortment of co-writers, this remains a unified work, with cymbals crashing, horns flying, and plenty of cool guitars to go along with Steven Tyler’s typically theatrical vocals. The album is filled with heavy rockers such as the title track, “Taste Of India” (which gives the listener just that), and “Crash,” plus catchy mid-tempo numbers such as “Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees),” “Pink” (both minor hits), and “Fallen Angels.” Also, the band’s obligatory big ballads, such as “Hole In My Soul” and “Kiss Your Past Goodbye,” are generally effective efforts, though they falter on “Full Circle.” Granted, the band are too often lyrically clichéd at this point (lines like “cause if it’s over, then it’s over, and it’s driving me insane” don't always ring particularly true), but the band’s busy musical formula holds enough groove-intensive hooks and inventive integrity to largely (if not fully) compensate. Still going strong late in the game, Aerosmith are rock n’ roll’s version of Don Sutton, hoping to parlay dual benchmarks of longevity and consistency into rock n’ roll immortality.

Just Push Play (Columbia ’01) Rating: B-
With their recent induction into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, a bizarre Super Bowl performance with Britney Spears and N’ Sync, and their fine first single (“Jaded”) burning up the charts, Aerosmith’s profile has rarely been higher. This is the band’s first self-produced album, albeit with help from Marti Frederiksen and Mark Hudson, either of whom also co-author every single track on the album, usually in tandem with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. As such, this was cause for some concern at the band’s record company, but by now it’s become pretty clear that Columbia has a hit on their hands. The album begins with the big beat of drummer Joey Kramer on “Beyond Beautiful,” a solid though hardly overwhelming track that’s highlighted by Steven Tyler’s histrionic vocals, before the hip-hop influenced, self-referencing (i.e. “walk this way”) title track. Next, “Jaded” delivers the kind of big mid-tempo ballad that has become the band’s latter day calling card, and with a good lyric to boot (“you’re so jaded…and I’m the one who jaded you”). Unfortunately, “Fly Away From Here” is a bland power ballad that’s only somewhat salvaged by Tyler’s always-stellar vocals. “Trip Hoppin’,” which has nothing to do with the musical genre of “trip hop,” is likewise generic though kind of catchy, but the album then upswings on “Sunshine,” which boasts a singable chorus that will likely have considerable commercial appeal, as should “Under My Skin.” This song is a perfect example of how, no matter how chaotic their verses (here they cram horns and strings into a lurching rhythm), the band always returns to a tuneful chorus, and another good lyric (“I think she’s the reason that its open broken-hearted season”) helps makes it a standout track. Meanwhile, the poorly spelled “Luv Lies” is yet another melodic ballad which displays the band’s typically free-spirited sexual vision (“to fall in lust not luv, ain’t no sin at all”), while Tyler’s lyrics veer into the ridiculous (“brika braka fiya kraka, sis boom-bah! Here comes trouble in a push up bra”) on “Outta Your Head.” Finally, the Joe Perry sung “Drop Dead Gorgeous” is average Aerosmith by numbers, and the album ends with “Light Inside,” a busy, bustling rocker with a scorching Joe Perry guitar solo, and the psychedelic, cleverly titled “Avant Garden,” which is only moderately enjoyable. The same could be said for this album as a whole, for although it has a few standout songs, there’s not a stone cold killer in sight. What’s most interesting about the album is that The Beatles have seemingly usurped The Rolling Stones’ place as the band’s primary influence. Of course, after almost 30 years together the band pretty much have their very own thing going on, and at this point Aerosmith are simply incapable of making a bad album. Of course, with a collective eye that’s always on the bottom line, they'll probably never make a great, truly exciting one again, either.

Honkin' On Bobo (Columbia ’04) Rating: B
Surprise, surprise, Just Push Play deservedly didn’t turn out to be such a hit after all, so after another redundant hits package (O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits) that included a dreadful new single (“Girls Of Summer”), Aerosmith “returned to their roots” with the horribly titled Honkin’ On Bobo. Re-teaming with producer Jack Douglas, the album includes 11 old blues/soul songs along with one decent new song (“The Grind,” co-written with Frederiksen, of course), as Aerosmith belatedly attempts to restore some credibility/respectability with their old fans. The album was marketed “blues done Aerosmith style,” and that’s pretty accurate, as Aerosmith turns old warhorses from the likes of Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Willie Dixon (though, truth be told, most of the song selections aren’t all that obvious, which is a good thing) and turns them into loud arena rock/blown up bar band songs. Which isn’t a bad thing (though blues purists may disagree), as, for the first time in ages the energy is back. So is the fun, in part because there’s not a single power ballad in sight, and though the album is hardly essential and is in fact rather hit and miss, this is the first Aerosmith album I might actually choose to play five years from now since Pump. For one thing, the album runs for a very reasonable 45 minutes and contains a minimum of bloat, and the band plays like they have something to prove. Alas, Tyler’s voice is showing his age (he sounds downright sickly on “Temperature”), and there are some boring attempts (“Eyesight To The Blind”) and/or ill-advised selections (reversing Aretha on “Never Loved A Girl” - some songs just shouldn’t be tampered with, and that’s one of them). However, making the much-covered (the Amboy Dukes, Them, The Animals, etc.) “Baby Please Don’t Go” actually sound fresh and exciting is quite a feat, and there are other impressive achievements as well. For example, McDowell’s “You Gotta Move” (most famously done by the Stones) has more of an expansive jam-based vibe and is all the better for it, while Dixon’s “I’m Ready” is done up with a moody mid-tempo blooze stomp. "Shame, Shame, Shame" is an enjoyably up tempo barrelhouse rocker with legendary Chuck Berry pianist Johnnie Johnson providing accompaniment (he does elsewhere as well, adding a touch of class to the proceedings), and their gospel blues take on the traditional “Jesus Is On The Main Line,” replete with choir and some delicious dobro licks, is also a nice surprise, and only a couple of songs (“Eyesight To The Blind” and “Back Back Train,” the latter with Tracy Bonham and Joe Perry - who also sings lead on "Stop Messin' Around" - providing vocals) are straight up blues renderings. Then again, it’s not whether Aerosmith does justice to or improves these songs, the whole point of covers albums is to make the songs your own and make people check out the original sources, and Aerosmith have achieved both aims on Honkin’ On Bobo, their best album in over a decade (for whatever that’s worth). Still, pick out any number of their bluesier efforts from their younger, hungrier years ("Rattlesnake Shake," "All Your Love," and "South Station Blues," all available on their 3-cd Pandoras Box box set, for example), and they're all better than most of what's on Honkin’ On Bobo.

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