So, after a 30-year career, Steven Tyler and Aerosmith decided
\nto pay tribute to their blues roots and record an album consisting
\nprimarily of their takes on these old standards.<\/p>\n
The question I found myself asking was, “Why?” Funny thing,
\nthough — I was asking this out loud months before the release of
\nAerosmith’s latest disc,
\nHonkin’ On Bobo<\/i>. I’m still asking that question.<\/p>\n
Let’s be brutally frank here: as a force to be reckoned with in
\nthe rock world, Aerosmith has been slipping for some time now — in
\nfact, you could probably point to their chart-topping hit “I Don’t
\nWant To Miss A Thing” as the start of the decline.
\nJust Push Play<\/i> seemed to confirm the obvious.<\/p>\n
So maybe it could be argued that
\nHonkin’ On Bobo<\/i> is really meant as a disc that allows
\nAerosmith to keep working on new material while staying in the
\npublic eye. The returning to their roots might help spark the ol’
\ncreative juices again, and return the band to the salad days of
\nPermanent Vacation<\/i> and
\nGet A Grip<\/i>. This is all possible — but this release doesn’t
\ndo a whole lot to boost the faith of the Aerosmith fan.<\/p>\n
In a sense,
\nHonkin’ On Bobo<\/i> feels like already plowed ground. Remember
\nthat Aerosmith had previously covered “Train Kept A-Rollin'” and
\n“Big 10-Inch Record” to show their knowledge of their roots. Did we
\nreally need a whole disc’s worth of tracks like that to remind
\nus?<\/p>\n
Granted, there are some winners contained herein. I have yet to
\nhear a bad version of “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” and guitarist Joe
\nPerry does a great job on lead vocals on “Stop Messin’ Around”. And
\nyou do have to kind of admire the almost gospel-like qualities of
\nthe disc’s closer “Jesus Is On The Main Line” — finally, there’s a
\nsong that is a stretch for the group, but one that works.<\/p>\n
The remainder of
\nHonkin’ On Bobo<\/i> is rather hit-or-miss in terms of quality
\nand excitement. The band sounds like it’s going through the motions
\non tracks like “Road Runner” and “Eyesight To The Blind,” but they
\nturn around and deliver respectable performances on other numbers
\nlike “Shame, Shame, Shame” (which has that “Big 10-Inch Record”
\nvibe to it) and “I’m Ready” (which almost sounds like Willie Dixon
\nhimself was channeled by Tyler).<\/p>\n
The difficulty with this album is that it doesn’t challenge the
\nlistener or the band like it should. Even the one original number
\non the disc, “The Grind,” sounds like a second-rate “Jaded” or “I
\nDon’t Want To Miss A Thing”. And while one could question the
\nsensibility of doing an album like this at this stage in
\nAerosmith’s career, one couldn’t be faulted for being disappointed
\nby the overall experience. The good moments on this disc make the
\nlistener know that it’s worth the time to find them, but the lesser
\nmaterial makes them wonder whether or not Aerosmith’s “second
\ncoming” is finally running on fumes.<\/p>\n
\nHonkin’ On Bobo<\/i> is still worth a listen or two, if not only
\nfor curiosity’s sake but also to re-expose yourself to the work of
\nsome artists who may be unknown to the present generation. If only
\nAerosmith had made a disc that made listeners want to discover more
\nabout people like Sonny Boy Williamson, Ellis McDaniel (Bo Diddley)
\nand Mississippi Fred McDowell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5636],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37908","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\/37908","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=37908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37908"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37908"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}