Aerosmith needs no introduction rather than, if you do not like Aerosmith, it's kind of un-American. With all of the albums and songs they have produced over the years (14 albums, excluding tomorrow's, and 21 Top 40 charting singles), there has to be at least one song that you like. The Boston bred rock band (Steven Tyler, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford) is an American tradition. Everyone heard their parents playing their albums on their record players when they were little or the old fashioned 5 CD changers as they got older; last time I listened to my dad's iPod, it was full of Aerosmith. If the band can successfully traverse their way through all of these levels of technology (records, tapes, CD's, and iPod's) they can have a successful album release tomorrow (11/6).
Music From Another Dimension! is their first album release in eight years, and there is no doubt in my mind that the band is still amazing. The fact that they have not taken a break from touring over the years is clear if you have seen any of their promotional performances on shows this past week or so. The band is fantastic live; a group of drunken looking assholes turn into this amazing iconic rock band on stage that never misses a beat. Steven Tyler may not, does not, have the best voice, but it is amazing for this band and the sound they are looking to achieve; no one can scream like Tyler can, and the only person that could ever harmonize with Tyler is Hamilton.
"Walk On Water" is great and, as misogyny is acceptable only in good rock music, that is what makes songs like this or "Rag Doll" or "Love In An Elevator" so great. The sound is pure rock, and it is fantastic.
"Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" is just weird, but fantastic. When it was written, everyone had that awful long rock hair and wore those tight pants, and now all these 'guys' are into manscaping and some of them still really like those too tight pants, so it's great again.
The band can turn around from songs like "Eat the Rich," or any of those songs mentioned above, to make "The Other Side," "Angel," and "Crazy"; they are going to be great for a long time because they have so much diversity and talent in their small group. After all of these years, the band is still able to come up with lyrics that people just have to sing along with, and that will make them last. And the fact that the band wrote and composed "Janie's Got A Gun" should be praise enough (or at least ensure that they will always get a paycheck).
Most covers of The Beatles are cringe-worthy, but Aerosmith's is good. It is not better than the original (that would be a slightly blasphemous claim to make), but they did choose the best song, for the band, to cover. "Come Together" is the only song that sounds right coming out of that rock sound, with Tyler's scratchy voice and his screams that just sound like they are pulled from deep in his gut.
The band has produced amazing songs like "Blind Man" and "Walk This Way". They have warring sounds and meaning, but both are wonderfully fantastic. "Blind Man" has not had an equal in all the years since its release, and everyone knows "Walk This Way"; it's a classic.
Of course, there are those classics like "Cryin'," "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing," and "Jaded". Everyone has heard, at least one, of these songs. They are all fantastic in their own way, whether it is a great line like "that kind of love was the killing kind" or the terrific use of violins in "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing" (a string chamber, or even one violin, almost always makes a song better), or even the echoing guitar sound in "Jaded" that slides along with lyrics like "in all its misery, it will always be what I love and hated".
"Amazing" is just amazing, seriously. It is full of these great sayings like "you have to learn to crawl before you walk," "life's a journey, not a destination," and "you can't fly with broken wings," along with Tyler's great lyrical skills with lines like "I am saying a prayer for the desperate hearts tonight". It's a just an anthem that is reminiscent of everything you want to hear at the end of a concert, or what you need after a long day.
If you do not like "Dream On," I just, I literally have no words to describe how I would feel; just listen to it. The lyrics are amazing; any song that begins with "every time I look in the mirror, all these lines in my face getting clearer" is going to be great. The song itself has that classic rock sound, as all of Aerosmith's songs do, but it has the clean acoustic rock sound, like the type you would hear in "Hotel California" (The Eagles are the only other American band as iconic as Aerosmith). Tyler stated that, when he first came up with the chords for the song, he had been messing around on his father's piano and knew nothing about writing music, just that he liked how those two notes sounded and that he thought the phrase, "dream on," would sound good if sung over those notes. It may be a rock ballad rather than a gritty rock anthem, but a song that says "sing it with me just for today, maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away" or "dream until your dreams come true" is fantastic, regardless of anything the band or its members are able to achieve in their careers; and no one can sing this song the same way that Tyler can. On one of their promotional talk show stops, Steven Tyler was discussing how he came up with the melody and lyrics for "Dream On" and, whilst doing so, still seemed excited about the entire process of making music. To me, that is amazing; if he still gets excited about the process of making music, and loves to do so, I am still going to spend my money on whatever tours or albums they want to put out there.
Buy Music From Another Dimension! tomorrow; no matter how long the band has gone without visiting the studio, any of their past songs will convince you that their newest album will be great.
- E
