Aerosmith's later period (pagal M.Prindle)

A fantastic '70s hard rock band. They used to be a loud, guitar-driven hard rock band - kinda like a cross between the Stones and Zeppelin, but distinctly American, somehow. Kinda funky, too. And I don't mean that in a 90's "smelly" way, although they have certainly been one of the smellier bands of our decade. They were never the most ambitious band, but, in their heyday, they spat up some of the catchiest grit rock stompers you'll ever condescend to lend an ear to. So give 'em a break. Like Black Sabbath, their first six albums were good - ALL of them. But then, due to drugs, egos, and whatnot, both of the guitarists quit, the singer replaced them, then the guitarists came back, eventually they all went through drug rehabilitation, and now they're little more than popular purveyors of puerile pubescent pablum. And they blow. Interested? Well, walk this way!!! Oh, the wacky woolly wit! Permanent Vacation - Geffen 1987.Rating = 8

After Done With Mirrors dug its way straight into the cheapy bins, Run-DMC revived the career of these "Toxic Twins" by doing a cover of "Walk This Way" with special guest appearances by Steve and Joe. Then the whole band went through drug rehab, got clean, and went back into the studio to prove themselves worthy. And did they? Hah?Strangely, yes!!! Permanent Vacation was not a return to the gritty street rock of old, but an extremely marketable embracing of late-eighties bombastic poptones. And it's a beautiful record!!! Every song is completely predictable in every way imaginable, yet more fun than a wooden nickle almost. Steven does a fantastic job coming up with interesting vocal melodies ("Magic Touch" and "Hangman Jury" come to mind as two songs that would be generic as all hey if not for the note-happy vox of master Tylanski), and the guitar-happy (polished but LOUD!!!) combo seems to be having a great time running through track after song after ditty of pukingly perfect pop poop. There are a million good reasons to hate this record, but I've chosen (finally) to listen to my heart and recognize it for the true pop and roll masterpiece that it is. Like The Monkees, but volumey! Tons of personality on the record, too. Sounds like a combo on top of their game - not one whose last three albums sold like twelve copies combined. Good work, Aerosmiths! "Dude Looks Like A Lady?" You BET he does!!!!

Pump - Geffen 1989.Rating = 4

Okay, never mind. A few years after Perm Vac, Aerosmith put out this sleazy girly pop album that pissed me off so much, it drove me away from the band for a good several years. In recent years, good decent folk kept telling me, "Oh, you GOTTA give Pump a chance! It's really good!" So finally I broke down and picked up the CD for four dollars, and discovered that I can no longer trust good decent folk because these songs are lame. They aren't bombastic rock and roll like on that Perm album. They're just bland generic sissy crap - not even catchy!!! Remember the hits? "Love In An Elevator," "What It Takes," "Janie's Got A Gun," and "The Other Side"? Well, I hope you liked 'em, because there's nothing else on here that even comes close. Most of the songs, in fact, don't have a discernible riff at all, but just a watered-down slicked-up version of the directionless guitar chooglin' that made Draw The Line such a treat. It doesn't work here, though. Not at all. These songs are just boring. What a letdown after Permanent Vacation! Oh well. At least it has "Love In An Elevator." As much as I hate to admit it, I've grown to really love that song over the last few months. It's those "Whoa!"s and "Whoa Yeah!"s in the verse. They drive me wild! Too bad that they're the most inspired bit of music on the record. The album doesn't SUCK, you understand; it's just a really boring take on teenage music, kinda like Done With Mirrors, but more obviously aimed towards high school girls (with cheesy horns and stuff). Beats me why everybody likes it so much. Any ideas?

Get A Grip - Geffen 1993.Rating = 6

I kinda like this one now! Really heavy guitars, some catchy stupid tunes. Even the ballads aren't that bad -- though the lyrics to "Livin' On The Edge" are pretty dumb. Original grade: 3 - Here's my bitter old review.

Rockers and ballads - all dull and annoying, and hardly ever catchy. Real disheartening. "Eat The Rich" has a cool lead line, but it's a ripoff of "Walk This Way," and the whole idea of a band as wealthy as Aerosmith claiming to be anything other than "The Rich" is quite offensive indeed. The title track is a darn fine attempt to recreate the groove mood of Draw The Line, but it sounds so much like "Sight For Sore Eyes" that it might as well not even exist. Then there's "Fever," which actually rocks!!!! Best song on the album, unless you count the sleek instrumental at the end. The rest of the songs are pretty awful. Of the four interchangeable ballad hits ("Livin' On The Edge," "Cryin'," "Crazy," and "Amazing"), not a single one has anything new to say, either musically or lyrically.

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing CD-single - Sony 1998Rating = 2

"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" is a hit single by American rock band Aerosmith. It was taken from the Armageddon soundtrack and debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first and only song by a rock band to debut at #1 [1]. The song stayed at number one for four weeks from September 5 to September 26, 1998. It also introduced Aerosmith to a whole new generation of fans. The song rose steadily up the charts in the UK, peaking at number four in November 1998.That's just Wikipedia's opinion though. In my opinion, this Diane Warren-penned monstrosity belongs in the urine with the poop. Happy New Year everyone! It's 12:24 AM on the first morning of 2007 when I pen these jealous words. This CD-single features "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing," which is a terrible ballad, followed by the 'Rock Mix' of "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing," which has guitars instead of violins, then a 'Rock Mix' of "Taste Of India" which was already a rock song (from Nine Lives) so I'm not sure what that's all about, then it closes up the shop with "Animal Crackers," which is a bit of dialogue from the godfuckingassawful motion picture Armageddon recited in terrible Southern accents by bad actors over Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing." Sometimes in life a CD-single will surprise you with its quality.

Armageddon is an example of a movie that is a piece of shit on the shoe of American life. This is because it's a big stupid action movie that you go to because you like being an idiot, and then right at the end they make Bruce Willis die for no godfuckingdamnedass reason at all. Just to be "tragic" like Titanic. But the movie is DUMB AS STUPID COTTON CANDY FEEL-GOOD URINE SAMPLE, so the contrived 'tragic' ending just makes you want to strangle the screenwriter, whoever the D.B. is (and I don't mean "data base").

Aerosmith are the biggest sell-outs in rock and roll history. All we can do is accept this, decide whether or not to buy their rotten new albums in dollar bins, and move on. It's very sad because they seriously had like 8 really good albums in a row before agreeing to do whatever their record company told them to do (i.e. use outside writers, gear their material toward morons, suck a lot of dick), but when the stakes are down and the money's low, all five of them were willing to say, "Hay, you know what? Let's just record a bunch of generic ballads so I can pay rent for the next 500 years."

Why did they record this song? Did somebody approach them and say, "Hey dude, we want you to do a song on the soundtrack of our crapass new piece of dung movie, but not one you shitheads wrote. Do a song by some girl."? Is that why they recorded the worst song ever recorded? It's a Celine Dion song, not an Aerosmith song. Happy near yew! Harpy new year! I'm so drunk, this song STILL sucks big fat fuckin' ass hair!

Rockin' The Joint: Live At The Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas - Columbia 2005Rating = 8Containing two of the few great songs from Just Push Play (Turkishy octave-bouncer "Beyond Beautiful" and punk rocky "Light Inside")But of course Aerosmith can't leave well enough alone so they have to throw on "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" (WHY???? Not only did they not write this bland Bruce Willis ballad by themselves - they didn't even CO-WRITE it! And it shows! There's no hook! Here's an exclamation point, if you need one for later! --> !)

p.scaruffi.:

Get A Grip (1993) offered generous portions of boogie (Fever, Get A Grip, Eat The Rich) and balladry (Cryin, Amazing), but neither set was as accomplished as the songs on Pump, and the sociopolitical Livin' On The Edge sounded insincere at best.

Big Ones (1994) is an anthology of 1985-1993. A Little South of Sanity(1998) is a double-CD career retrospective.

As Aerosmith became part of the establishment, their albums Nine Lives (Columbia, 1997) and Just Push Play (2001) and the hit single I Don't Want To Miss A Thing(1998) began catering to the jet-set rather than to the blue-collar kids of their youth.

Honkin' on Bobo (2004) is an old-style album of blues numbers.

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Aerosmith - Big Ones