Genre: Country Rock/Easy Listening
Released by: Dot Records
Release date: July 15 2016
Tracklist:
1.“My Own Worst Enemy”
2. “We’re All Somebody From Somewhere”
3. “Hold On (Won’t Let Go)”
4. “It Ain’t Easy”
5. “Love Is Your Name”
6. “I Make My Own Sunshine”
7. “Gypsy Girl”
8. “Somebody New”
9. “Only Heaven”
10. “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly & Me”
11. “RED, WHITE & YOU”
12. “Sweet Louisiana“
13. “What Am I Doin’ Right?”
14. “Janie’s Got A Gun”
15. “Piece Of My Heart”
With the hysteria of ‘ooooh a new release from Mr Aerosmith himself’ now firmly behind us, we take another look at this country fuelled debut solo release and deliver a more critical appraisal of where Mr Tyler is right now;
‘We’re all Somebody From Somewhere’ is Steven Tyler’s first solo country album (yes that Steven Tyler of Aerosmith). If you are looking for a new Aerosmith album the you best ‘Walk On By’, this is definitely not for you. If however, your Spotify ‘Just For You’ includes the likes of Lonestar, Garth Brooks, Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw, then this album will be right up your dust covered street.
On first listen I couldn’t but help to think to myself that this was a cover album, as all of the songs seemed so familiar, but surprisingly there was only one straight cover, ‘Piece of My Heart’, with a couple of reworked Aerosmith songs thrown in for good measure. But still I couldn’t shift the feeling of having heard these before.
The album opens with probably the best lyrics on this album, ‘I could blame Jesus, I could blame momma, I could blame Brahma for all the bull that’s in my head’ showing that Steven Tyler can still put pen to paper and win. Unfortunately, the rest of the album sounds just like any other generic country album released out of Nashville in the past decade.
Love Is Your Name Single
The title track ‘We’re all Somebody From Somewhere’ seems to try and remind us that ‘we’re all somebody from Somewhere’ and that Tyler loves cornbread. ‘Love is Your Name’ was the first single released from this album and is a little upbeat number, that would quite happily appear on a compilation album to be played on a loop in a branded food restaurant that specialises in big burgers and steaks, or would be on as the closing credits roll after an action/love story film, although I think Aerosmith already have that niche covered.
‘I make my own Sunshine’ is as happy and sickly as you imagine it to be from the title. The introduction to this song tricked me into thinking that a random advert for some vitamins had snuck its way into my music player, sadly not, although that could be an avenue for this track in future. The album plods along merrily until ‘Red, White & you’. This must be one of the most cringe worthy songs I have heard in a while. Generic, pickup truck, lakeside bonfire party stereotypes popped into my head every time I listened to this track, It’s just not original, and has been done so many times before.
I got my hopes up for the final two tracks on album ‘Janie’s Got a gun’ and ‘Piece of my heart’. They were dashed. Neither are a touch on the originals, with Steve Tyler somehow managing to drag all the emotion from both songs.
Yes, this is a well-produced album, if sometimes a little over produced, which manages to remove all the feeling from some of the songs on the album. Steven Tyler’s voice lends itself well to country music, however the genre is pretty well covered by better, well known artists. If you like country music then you may well like this, if you are a Rock fan, unless you are a diehard Aerosmith fan, you are best avoiding this. It’s not a terrible album, but it’s not great either.
6/10
Reviewed by Kalli Isborne
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