Ah, nothing spells a band’s comeback success like their old
\nlabel’s re-issuing of their material, does it? Just a year after
\nAerosmith cemented the fact they were back to stay with
\nPermanent Vacation<\/i>, their then-former label decided to claim
\nanother stake of the pie with their release of
\nGems<\/i>.<\/p>\n
In a sense, you could think of this as the sequel to
\nAerosmith’s Greatest Hits<\/i>, but in truth, this disc is much
\nbetter than its predecessor. Yeah, all of the big hits were on the
\nfirst best-of collection, but they were remixed and manipulated
\ninto tracks which barely resembled their original brethren. At
\nleast
\nGems<\/i> leaves the originals alone, and throws in a previously
\nunreleased track to boot.<\/p>\n
This set does many things right. First, it doesn’t deny the
\nexistence of sub-par Aerosmith albums. It took some guts to include
\n“No Surprize” (off
\nNight In The Ruts<\/i>) and “Jailbait” (off the abysmal
\nRock In A Hard Place<\/i>), but they turn out to be gambles which
\npay off. Far removed from the full albums, these tracks do sound a
\nbit better than one would normally give them credit for.<\/p>\n
Second, the inclusion of “Chip Away The Stone” is a welcome
\naddition to Aerosmith’s catalog. Granted, a live version was on
\nLive Bootleg<\/i> back in 1978, but the studio version absolutely
\nsmokes with power and intensity. Why this one remained hidden for
\nso long is anyone’s guess, but it’s a great track.<\/p>\n
Third, attention is turned back to some Aerosmith tracks which
\nare just as worthy of people’s attention as the over-played radio
\nhits. I’ve been listening to some of these albums now for about two
\ndecades, and it’s still exciting to hear songs like “Rats In The
\nCellar,” “Lick And A Promise” and “Lord Of The Thighs.”<\/p>\n
Ironically, though, it’s the lack of any of the familiar hits
\nwhich turns out to be a minor weakness on
\nGems<\/i>. Yeah, I recognize that repackaging some or all of them
\nmight be seen as a desperate attempt to cash in, but maybe the
\nproducers could have included the original versions of “Sweet
\nEmotion” or “Same Old Song And Dance” instead of the edited
\nversions on
\nAerosmith’s Greatest Hits<\/i>. In reality,
\nGems<\/i> is caught in a catch-22 caused by no direct fault of
\nthe album.<\/p>\n
Somehow, this particular release has been forgotten over the
\npassage of time — that and the inundation of best-ofs from
\nAerosmith over the last few years. But
\nGems<\/i> is a disc which lives up to its name and is well worth
\nthe investment, especially for anyone who wants to discover more of
\nAerosmith than what they can hear played on rock radio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5636],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37895","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-aerosmith","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37895","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=37895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37895"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}