Released By : Columbia Records
Genre : Rock
Link : http://www.aerosmith.com/#2
Lineup:
Steven Tyler – Vocals
Joe Perry – Guitar
Joey Kramer – Drums
Tom Hamilton – Bass
Brad Whitford – Guitar
Tracklist:
01. Luv XXX
02. Oh Yeah
03. Beautiful
04. Tell Me
05. Out Go The Lights
06. Legendary Child
07. What Could Have Been Love
08. Street Jesus
09. Can’t Stop Loving You
10. Lover A Lot
11. We All Fall Down
12. Freedom Fighter
13. Closer
14. Something
15. Another Last Goodbye
After re-editing the first paragraph of this review about eight times I realized what the biggest problem with it was. I was using the word ‘disappointing’ where I really shouldn’t have. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t think much of the album, but my expectations were rather low anyway, so I wasn’t really disappointed in the true sense of the word. With all of the ridiculous in-fighting the band has partaken in over the last few years and Tyler’s transformation into a joke of a TV celebrity working directly with the kind of people that are responsible for the near destruction of true rock music, MUSIC FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION was never going to be much more than a quick cash grab to take advantage of Tyler’s newfound mega-fame.
I’ll start with the positive aspects first. Joe Perry is all over this album strutting his awesome guitar work and making even some of the crappier songs listenable, and Steven Tyler himself seemingly hasn’t lost his ability to scream, squeal and wail with the best of them. Joey Kramer brings some great beats and fills and it’s always nice to hear him whack that cowbell! There’s even a few songs here that are worthy of sitting alongside some of their best classic seventies output. LUV XXX (pronounced LOVE THREE TIMES) is a super opening track and oozes sleaze and swagger. OUT GO THE LIGHTS could easily fit on an album like DONE WITH MIRRORS and has a classic blues-rock backbone. LEGENDARY CHILD mixes SWEET EMOTION with LIVIN’ ON THE EDGE and seems a decent meeting point of rock band and commercial chart topper. The best track on the album by a long way though is STREET JESUS…Now this is the best song AEROSMITH have released in around twenty years or so. It has everything you could possibly want in a Perry/Tyler song and just goes to show that these guys have still got plenty of balls when they remember where they put them.
Unfortunately the rest of the album basically follows in the pop-rock and balladry drivel that the band has laid out over the last two decades or so. I enjoy the occasional AEROSMITH ballad as much as anyone else does I guess, but there’s SEVEN of them here, and most of them really do sound the same as the one before it. The worst culprit would have to be a duet track with American Idol alumni Carrie Underwood, which is pure pop rubbish that is a sad cry for modern day relevance that alienates virtually every old-school fan of the band.
It’s a shame really, because glimpses here and there show that AEROSMITH still have some great songwriting chops and in a couple of places you can almost feel that the band wanted to steer away from being modern and commercialized, they just didn’t have the balls to take it all the way. If you are one of the people that has the BIG ONES compilation in regular rotation then you will get the most out of MUSIC FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION. If you are more inclined to reach for albums like DONE WITH MIRRORS and TOYS IN THE ATTIC, I would suggest you purchase your copy digitally and extract the four or five worthy songs here and dump the rest in your mom’s music folder.
Written By ZeeZee
Rating : 5/10
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