I remember when
\nPump<\/i>, the 1989 release from Aerosmith, came out. I was
\nworking in college radio when we got a few copies in. I snagged one
\nof the records and slapped it on the turntable. An hour later, I
\nwas convinced I had heard the best record Steven Tyler and crew had
\never recorded.<\/p>\n
It’s now 15 years later. Times change, memories become cluttered
\nwith cobwebs and halcyon dreams of what I wish had been. And, the
\nsorry mess known as rock radio, as always, has taken some of the
\ndecent songs on this disc and bludgeoned listeners to death with
\nthem. It’s gotten to the point that if I hear “The Other Side,”
\n“What It Takes” or “Janie’s Got A Gun” come on the radio, my hand
\nmoves to the channel-changing buttons faster than Ben Affleck can
\ncrank out a crappy movie.<\/p>\n
When placed in perspective,
\nPump<\/i> is not a bad album, but coming off of the critical and
\ncreative success of
\nPermanent Vacation<\/i>, Aerosmith was going to have a hard time
\ntopping their last effort. In fact, they don’t come close to doing
\nso, never mind the fact they had no less than four hits off of this
\ndisc.<\/p>\n
Things start off at a decent enough clip, with the one-two
\nkidney punch that is “Young Lust” and “F.I.N.E.” The band does seem
\nto be at their tightest musically, crunching through these songs
\nand leaving no doubt that singles like “Rag Doll” and “Dude (Looks
\nLike A Lady)” were no flukes. It is ironic, though, that the best
\nsongs on this particular album are three songs which weren’t
\nreleased as singles — the previous two mentioned, and “Monkey On
\nMy Back.”<\/p>\n
Yet there is something different about this album – something
\nthat is missing. Maybe it is the sense of urgency that both
\nDone With Mirrors<\/i> and
\nPermanent Vacation<\/i> had. Maybe it was a turn — albeit slight
\n— away from the blooze-rock image and more towards pop
\nsensibilities. How else does one explain the inclusion of a ballad
\nlike “What It Takes” and a morality play like “Janie’s Got A Gun,”
\ntwo of the weakest tracks on this disc?<\/p>\n
Oh, sure, there was still a lot of experimenting going on, as
\ncan be heard on “Voodoo Medicine Man” and “Don’t Get Mad, Get
\nEven.” But the overall vibe that one gets off of
\nPump<\/i> is that Aerosmith was beginning to settle into an
\nalmost middle-of-the-road format with their music. “Love In An
\nElevator” and “The Other Side,” while decent enough, don’t really
\nhave the snap or the edge to them like other tracks, such as “Draw
\nThe Line” or even “Reason A Dog,” lyrically or musically. It’s that
\ncomfort level, I think, that eats at me the most — rock and roll,
\nafter all, should be a little edgy.<\/p>\n
Does this mean that
\nPump<\/i> is a bad album? No, of course not. Maybe it’s that this
\nparticular album just hasn’t aged as well as others in Aerosmith’s
\ndiscography. Maybe it was that Aerosmith decided to play it safer
\nwith this one and found a comfort zone. Whatever the case,
\nPump<\/i> is a step backwards for Aerosmith, but not a fatal
\none.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5636],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37898","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-aerosmith","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37898","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=37898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37898"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}