I don’t know why, but
\nRocks<\/i>, the fourth release from Boston rockers Aerosmith,
\nconfuses me.<\/p>\n
On one hand, I’ve listened to this album for well over a decade,
\nexpecting to hear something that will knock my socks off, as I’ve
\nbeen led to believe by so many critics and fans alike. Yet when I
\nhear
\nRocks<\/i>, I don’t get that feeling. Instead, I feel like I’m
\nlistening to the beginning of a band collapsing under its own
\nweight – not that it’s a bad album, just not what I’ve been led to
\nexpect.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, I do hear Steven Tyler and company kicking
\nhard against the expectations of what they would do after their
\nlandmark release
\nToys In The Attic<\/i>. It would have been easy for the band to
\nsimply kick back and let the momentum of their new-found
\nsuperstardom help them coast through this release. Instead, it
\nfeels like the band purposely kicked things into overdrive in order
\nto avoid hitting the slump that plagues so many follow-up
\nalbums.<\/p>\n
This isn’t a feeling I come to after a cursory listening of
\nRocks<\/i>; this is 10-plus years of living with this disc. Make
\nno mistake about it, this is a good album. I just question whether
\nit deserves to be called their masterpiece.<\/p>\n
Let’s look at the arguments in favor of declaring this one
\nAerosmith’s best. You’ve got the growling “Back In The Saddle,”
\ncomplete with six-string bass solos from Joe Perry. You’ve got the
\ngroovified funk of “Last Child,” which makes sure that every
\nlistener will be up and dancing to this one. You’ve got the
\nunderrated magic that is “Combination,” quite possibly one of the
\nbest Aerosmith songs which never gets any attention on the radio.
\nAnd you’ve got the “shoulda-been-a-hit-single” “Lick And A
\nPromise”. While I might be sick of hearing “Back In The Saddle”
\nthanks to radio overplay, I can’t disagree with any of these
\narguments.<\/p>\n
But there are a few dissentions I hear. “Rats In The Cellar,”
\nwhile a good track at the core, feels like a re-write of “Toys In
\nThe Attic” in the frenzied beat, while “Sick As A Dog” doesn’t pack
\nquite the punch that other Aerosmith songs in this style do. (Note
\nthat I’m not saying it’s a bad track.) The same goes for “Nobody’s
\nFault,” a definite change in style for Aerosmith which takes some
\nchances, though I can’t say they’re either successes or failures.
\nAbout the only dud on this disc is the pseudo-ballad “Home Tonight”
\n– which at least knows when to make its exit from the disc. After a
\ndisc of solid rock numbers, this one is a bit awkward to close the
\nalbum with.<\/p>\n
This returns me to the dilemma I opened the review with. I can
\nunderstand how some people would take the great songs on
\nRocks<\/i> and use them to build a pedestal on which to place the
\nwhole album. And I do concede that it is a solid follow-up to
\nToys In The Attic<\/i>, one which pulls out even the few stops
\nthat were on the previous disc (save for the ubiquitous closing
\nballad).<\/p>\n
But all of this still leads me to seeing
\nRocks<\/i> as a good album – not a
\ngreat<\/i> one. Still, for all the excesses that Aerosmith was
\nindulging in at this point in their career, maybe it’s a miracle
\nthat
\nRocks<\/i> is as solid as it is.<\/p>\n
I guess if people want to declare
\nRocks<\/i> to be the ultimate Aerosmith disc, then they can
\ncontinue to revel in this disc’s glory. There’s no doubt that this
\none belongs in your record collection – but I’d hold off on
\nbuilding the altar to worship it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5636],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37425","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-aerosmith","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37425"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}