If the success that Aerosmith found with their album
\nPump<\/i> taught them anything, it was one dangerous lesson: the
\nballad can be a powerful, albeit overused, tool.<\/p>\n
When it came time for Steven Tyler and company to regroup for a
\nnew studio effort, 1993’s
\nGet A Grip<\/i>, they took the lesson of the ballad to heart,
\nchalking up three hits in that vein. Too bad, since the bulk of
\nthis album is a major return to form for Aerosmith after following
\ndown a safer rock vein with
\nPump<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Fact is, Tyler and crew hadn’t rocked this hard since at least
\nDone With Mirrors<\/i>, and possibly as long as 1976’s
\nRocks<\/i>. The crisp production (thanks to Bruce Fairbairn) and
\nraw bluesy rock easily qualifies as some of Aerosmith’s best, even
\ndaring to feature a Joe Perry lead vocal. In the end, the
\nover-reliance on ballads tends to weaken the album as a whole, but
\nit’s still an admirable effort.<\/p>\n
From the lead-off kick of “Eat The Rich” and its irreverent look
\nat high society, Aerosmith announce that they’re tired of playing
\nit safe and want more of an edge to their music. They get it in
\ndroves, and it is a welcome change following Pump’s almost bending
\nover backwards for rock radio. Tracks like “Fever,” “Gotta Love It”
\nand “Shut Up And Dance” demand that the listener take these songs
\non on their terms, and it turns out to be a remarkable journey.
\nTyler sounds more filled with life than I’ve heard in the longest
\ntime, and the rhythm section of guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist
\nTom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer have rarely sounded
\nbetter.<\/p>\n
Even Perry turns in a surprise as he delivers the vocal on “Walk
\nOn Down,” an absolutely amazing track which makes me wonder why
\nPerry hasn’t tried more of this. Granted, the development of the
\nverses is a little weak, but the overall result is nothing short of
\nmagical.<\/p>\n
So why would Aerosmith include a whopping three ballads on
\nGet A Grip<\/i> — “Cryin’,” “Crazy” (which is almost the same
\nfriggin’ song, for God’s sake) and “Amazing”? Well, maybe — just
\nmaybe — Aerosmith wasn’t ready to jettison all things comfortable.
\nAfter all, they were getting regular airplay again, and they were
\ngaining new fans with the ballads. Why they went over so well, I
\ndon’t think I’ll ever understand. So, maybe these three tracks —
\nnone of which are really strong efforts — is Aerosmith’s way of
\nkeeping their fingers on the pulses of their newly-gained
\nfanbase.<\/p>\n
\nGet A Grip<\/i> is not really viewed in the same light as albums
\nlike
\nPermanent Vacation<\/i> or
\nPump<\/i> — in a sense, this one has kind of been forgotten. Too
\nbad, ’cause next to
\nDone With Mirrors<\/i>, this disc is one of Aerosmith’s best
\nduring their stay on Geffen. Maybe it’s time to take another yank
\nat its udders and get people to rediscover how good this disc
\nreally was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5636],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37899","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\/37899","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=37899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37899"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37899"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}