Listening Post: Aerosmith - Honkin' on Bobo

Aerosmith – Honkin' On Bobo – 2004

Aerosmith goes back to its roots and becomes...The J. Geils Band?
If you go wayyyy back into the Geils catalog you'll discover that they were one of the best blues bar bands in the country. Also from Boston, their live record Full House is a dynamic explosion of rockin' blues.
Aerosmith's last album isn't live. And, while it is an album of straight ahead blues covers (except for one track, “The Grind”) it has that sleazy Tyler/Perry goo all over it.
And it's their best record in a while.
From the opening track, “Road Runner” by Bo Diddly, straight on to the penultimate song, “Stop Messin' Around”, with Sonny Boy Williamson and Willie Dixon songs among the blues breakers in the middle, it's a blast. Even the last song, “Jesus on the Mainline” sounds like everyone involved is having a grand time.
Except for that god awful title, which sounds more like a euphemism for sex with a drunken, fugly stripper instead of a nickname for Tyler's harmonica, Honkin' On Bobo is a blast.

Grade: B+
A-Side: Road Runner
BlindSide: Really the rest of the record.

Listening Post: Aerosmith - Just Push Play

Aerosmith – Just Push Play – 2001

Just Push Play is, without a doubt, the ugliest record that Aerosmith has ever recorded.
Still following the formula, utilizing outsized orchestrations whether or not they are appropriate, the band just comes across as tired.
And we are not the beneficiaries of anything good here.
The major single, “Jaded”, is as cut out a track as the band has ever done. While it's somewhat catchy, it's time for these guys to put it to rest. The rest of the record is forgettable at best.
Earlier this year Joe Perry went on record disavowing Play, saying that none of the members were in the same room when it was recorded and it taught him “how not to make an Aerosmith record.”
Indeed.

Grade: D
A-Side: Jaded
BlindSide:
DownSide: Trip Hoppin

Listening Post: Aerosmith - Nine Lives

Aerosmith – Nine Lives – 1997

So, it's been more than a year since I was doing the Listening Post for the Toxic Twins from Boston. I actually listened to this record once, but it was playing in the background while I was out in the backyard playing with Zoe and I wasn't really paying attention.
And I also have no real recollection of the band's catalog anymore so I can't really place it in any great context.
I can only rate it on it's own merits.
If Nine Lives was a soundtrack for some Hollywood big screen epic it makes perfect sense. It's a giant sounding record. Power ballads (“Hole in My Soul”, “Full Circle”- a song that sounds like the big hits “Cryin', et al, and which, while I can't quite recommend it, I kind of love), sprawling world music sound (“Taste of India”), rock monsters (“Nine Lives”, “Something's Gotta Give”) and radio friendly huge blues (Ain't that a Bitch).
All of them Rock-by-the-numbers formula songs. By this time, Aerosmith has it down. They are hiring the right producers, co-writers, buying the right tracks, selling to the people who will buy their stuff. I am imaging it's the same group that buy Bon Jovi records. In fact, an Aero-Jovi tour would probably make a gazillion dollars, except that Jon Bongiovi doesn't need Aerosmith the way Tyler and Co. might need him.
The drug fueled, hallucinepic, “The Farm” with it's Wizard of Oz re-enactments is a noble experiment, but it's just not very good or engaging. On the other hand, the speed-punk “Crash” is, for me, a much better song. It's not trying to be anything other than what it is. And it's the most alive the band has sounded in a while.
The single, “Pink”, is a grotesque as far as I'm concerned. Still obsessed with adolescent interests, it just grates and it's probably the first time I would include a hit single as a DownSide.
Nine Lives tries to keep the Pump – Get a Grip formula alive. And it doesn't fail. It's just that, once you've heard those records, you've heard those records and that's sort of enough. It's a comfortable sound, if not completely interchangeable. I prefer those others over this one, though. It's a solid, if lonnnnng record.

Grade: B-
A-Side: Nine Lives, Hole in My Soul,
BlindSide: Taste of India, Crash
DownSide: Ain't That a Bitch