Aerosmith: The Solo Albums

Yesterday (17/05/17) I completed the discographies of the solo albums made by members of Aerosmith. Reunion by Whitford/St. Holmes was the last album on the list, and the only reason I didn't already own it is that I didn't know it existed! Good marketing there...
But it's pretty great and made me think that I should do one of these for the Aerosmith solo albums, as there are quite a few.

Update 30/01/2018: Added Joe Perry's Sweetzerland Manifesto.

So, here we go:

Joe Perry, The Joe Perry Project & The Hollywood Vampires

Let The Music Do The Talking (1980)

Joe Perry is the lead guitarist for Aerosmith and, along with Steven Tyler, one half of the infamous Toxic Twins. During the recording of Aerosmith's Night In The Ruts, Joe quit the band after an argument involving several band members and their girlfriends/wives - often referred to as the 'Spilled Milk' incident. Look it up.

So, Joe left and formed the first iteration of the Joe Perry Project (JPP). They recorded 3 albums before Aerosmith got back together, and this first one is probably their best. Unlike Tyler, Perry is not a fan of ballads, so these albums are almost all hard rocking.

The album opens with the title track: Let The Music Do The Talking. If you've read my Aerosmith post, then you may remember that this song was reworked for Aerosmith's reunion album Done With Mirrors. The later version is much better, but this original has loads of life to it. As does the instrumental Break Song: a blistering 2 minute blues rock jam.

The other stand-out to me is Rockin' Train. Quite long for an Aerosmith-adjacent song at 6 minutes, and it does get a bit repetitive near the end, but on the whole it's a fun bluesy rocker.

As Perry had just started to flex his vocals in Aerosmith before quitting, he also takes lead on a few of these songs. Never a fantastic vocalist, but better than I think many give him credit for. Conflict Of Interest is a good example, it's a pretty simply vocal line but he does it well.

Unfortunately, as with the next two JPP albums, most of the songs aren't fantastic and kind of all blend in to a vague blues-rocky mess with little identity. The Mist Is Rising tries to buck this trend by going for a psychedelic/stoner vibe, but it doesn't work at all.

I've Got The Rock 'n' Rolls Again (1981)

Of these first three albums, their release order coincidentally coincides with their quality. IGTRnRA is the second best JPP album from the 80s. It's a shame that every JPP album has a different vocalist, because the one from their first album was probably their best of the 80s, but the one on this album is fine.

East Coast, West Coast, the title track and South Station Blues are obvious highlights. All three could slip in to an Aerosmith album from the 70s without too much bother. South Station Blues was almost an actual Aerosmith song, a jam version of the riff called Shit House Shuffle can be found on the Aerosmith compilation Pandora's Box.

And... that's about it. The other 7 songs are mostly fine, but aren't worth your time really. Buzz Buzz deserves a mention as possibly the worst song the JPP ever recorded, though there's some stiff competition from their third album...

Once A Rocker Always A Rocker (1983)

Look at that picture of Joe on the cover. That hair, the eyeliner. What was he thinking?! The 'glam' look unfortunately translated to their sound as well.

My attitude to this album is completely coloured by the vocalist, whose voice I hate. I literally can't listen to any of the songs he sings on... which is ALL of them. Perry doesn't have any solo vocals on this album, which is a shame, because I'm sure the majority of the songs would have been improved by him.

I just hate it so much.

Joe Perry (2005)

Following Aerosmith's Honkin' On Bobo was almost 10 years of inactivity other than the occasional tour. Tyler went off to judge on American Idol, Brad Whitford became the guitarist of a Jimi Hendrix tribute band. Perry, on the other hand, recorded some more solo albums. This is probably his best.

Not a JPP album, but a Joe Perry album. Joe played every single instrumental part, except for the drums which were done by his producer, and sang every vocal. And boy, does he let rip.

Shakin' My Cage is one of the heavier songs Joe has ever been involved with, and it's probably my favourite song on the album. A fantastic riff, a blistering solo. You get the impression that Joe has had such a build up of frustration from not playing good old rock 'n' roll in Aerosmith since Nine Lives, that he just wanted to have fun and show off.
The closing (instrumental) song, Mercy, is in a very similar vein. It's a showpiece for Joe's guitar skills, and just made you wish that some of this playing would feed back in to a new hard-rocking Aerosmith album (spoilers: it didn't).

It's not all heavy though. Pray For Me and Ten Years are attempts at love songs, the latter being much more effective. It's on these tracks in particular that the limits of Joe's voice are most apparent, but I don't care. The slight cracks make it sound even more sincere.

There are a handful of covers too. Crystal Ship is an old Doors song. I've never been a fan of The Doors, but having listened to both versions, I prefer Joe's. The tempo is upped a tad, and I prefer the guitar solo over the original keys solo.
There's also a cover of a very old blues song: Vigilante Man by Woody Guthrie. Joe's version has the amps turned right up, and it's given a much more sinister feel.

I love this album, and I think it's probably the best solo album of an Aerosmith member, and perhaps even better than Music From Another Dimension!
And I've not even mentioned Lonely, Hold On Me or Talk Talkin'; all amazing songs.

Have Guitar Will Travel (2009)

Tired of waiting for Aerosmith to get back in the studio, Joe made another album. This time not on his own, but still placed under the Joe Perry, rather than JPP, banner. As with JPP, though, there's a separate singer for most of the songs, and luckily he's not a vocalist that ruins every song he touches this time.

I'm not sure what happened on this album, but it just doesn't click for me. The opening track, We've Still Got A Long Way To Go, is fantastic and marks the first time Joe has ever used a synthesiser. But other than that... I'm not feeling it.

Somebody's Gonna Get (Their Head Kicked In Tonite [sic]) and Freedom are both OK rock songs, but don't reach the heights of anything on Joe Perry. Heaven And Hell is musically fun, but the lyrics are so repetitive and they drone on and on for 7 long minutes.

The instrumental is worth a listen, though it doesn't reach Mercy from Joe Perry: Wooden Ships is dedicated to Les Paul, and has some good soloing, but isn't bluesy enough.

On the whole I do like this album, but other than the first track there's very little that I'd go out of my way to listen to, which is a shame.

Joe Perry's Merry Christmas (2014)

Apparently Joe's wanted to record a Christmas album with Aerosmith for years, but they never went for it. So he made an EP himself.

It's a fun 4 songs. White Christmas and Silent Night are both instrumentals with guitars playing the vocal lines. The former is a rocked up version, while the latter is much more traditional and slow.

Run Run Rudolph is the best song by a mile, and it sounds like Joe was having a great time recording it. Santa Clause Is Back In Town is an old Elvis song, and Joe's version is pretty faithful to the original.

It's a fun EP, but it would have been nice for it to be longer, or to have included maybe an original.

Hollywood Vampires (2016)

Post-Music From Another Dimension!, Aerosmith have seemed to hit a lull in activity again (which only recently ended as they started what may be their last global tour). So Joe helped start a new band.

Hollywood Vampires is a super-group with Joe on lead guitar, Johnny Depp on rhythm and Alice Cooper on vocals. Drums and Bass were filled in (for the most part) by members' of Alice Cooper's touring band, although there are guest players all over the album including: Zak Starkey, Slash, Paul McCartney, Brian Johnson, Dave Grohl and many more.

It's basically a covers' album, sandwiched by two originals: Raise The Dead and My Dead Drunk Friends. Both of the originals are great (classic horror Alice Cooper lyrics), and actually make you want to hear what else this group could write if they made a whole album of originals.

It's a pretty rocky album with only Come And Get It, an old McCartney-penned/Badfinger-recorded song, to break up the unrelenting guitars.

Most of the covers stick reasonably close to the originals, but usually played a bit heavier. Whole Lotta Love is very strange: Cooper and Brian Johnson trade vocals and the guitar solo is replaced by a Cooper harmonica solo... It kind of works?

There are a few mashups as well. The best being a mix of School's Out and Another Brick In The Wall - a mashup that Cooper had been using to close his shows for a few years prior to the Hollywood Vampires.

It's an odd album, and I like it a lot. 

Sweetzerland Manifesto (2018)

Bored of Aerosmith not making a new album (he's apparently pushing though), Joe once again decided to just do it himself. Well, mostly. Although a 'Joe Perry', not a 'Joe Perry Project', album, this isn't like his 2005 effort where he played and sang everything himself except the drums. On this we have Johnny Depp playing some drums, and various other session musicians for the rest of the drum and bass duties. Vocals are mostly divided between classic rock vocalist (apparently, I had to look him up but he seems to have done a lot) Terry Reid, and ex-New York Dolls vocalist David Johansen. Robin Zander of Cheap Trick turns up for one song, and Joe takes one himself.

So, where does this sit in the Joe Perry catalogue? For me, it's on par with the second JPP album. In that there's the odd spark, but other than that... (whisper it) it's not very good.

Lets start with the vocals. Once again, Joe has just got it wrong. Terry and David simply don't work with the type of music Joe is making. David is way too punky (in that he can't sing), and I just don't like Terry. He's gravelly, and whimpery. It's just not pleasant.
On the other hand, Robin is great because he is actually a decent rock singer with a pedigree. His song, Aye Aye Aye, is billed and advertised as the best thing on the album. The 'single' if it had one. The music is good, and vocals are good, but the lyrics are awful. So close. 

I'm not alone in thinking this, I had a quick look around some reviews and they agree that, in all honesty, this would have been a whole lot better if Joe had done all the vocals himself (and he's not even that good). 

Musically, the riffs are all there. But there is a bit of odd genre-hopping. The opening instrumental is a bit spacey, a bit 'out there'. Then we have some fast-paced blues rock for a few tracks, before hitting the wall of harmonica fuelled, leg-slappin' blues for Haberdasher Blues. It's fine, but what's it doing here?

Spanish Sushi is a standout, if only because as an instrumental there is less to distract you from the (genuinely good, for the most part) music. 

A Perry-sung cover of Eve Of Destruction (a classic anti-war anthem) is also a highlight. It's very different from the original and most well-known versions. Being stripped of country, slowed down, and given a more sinister sound. I like it a lot. 

The final two songs are back to the usual hard blues rock, but the singers still ruin it.

I wouldn't have expected the worst Aerosmith solo-effort post-MFAD! to be from Joe, but there's no denying that Reunion and We're All Somebody From Somewhere are just more pleasurable listening experiences. A missed opportunity. 

Brad Whitford & Whitford/St. Holmes

Whitford/St. Holmes (1981)

When Joe Perry left Aerosmith, Brad Whitford (rhythm guitarist) also left soon after. He then teamed up with the vocalist for gun-toting Republican madman, but annoyingly good guitarist, Ten Nugent: Derek St. Holmes. This was the album they recorded together.

Personally, I think that this is a much better album than any of the JPP albums from the same period. Partly because St. Holmes is a fantastic vocalist, and partly because, unlike the JPP, Whitford/St. Holmes tried to make their own sound rather than emulate Aerosmith or Ted Nugent.

The sound they went for seems to be just straight up 70s/80s rock. It's no nonsense, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus stuff. I'm thinking of bands like Cheap Trick, Def Leppard and Poison.

Sharpshooter is usually thought to be the standout song from the album, it being included on the Pandora's Box compilation of Aerosmith rarities. It is very good, but is perhaps a bit too Ted Nugent-ey.

Every Morning is a riff-heavy AC/DC-like song. Does It Really Matter and Hold On are the more ballad-like songs, and both are fine.

On the whole though, this is just a good rock album.
Brad was to later join the JPP for some live gigs, and reunited with Aerosmith along with Joe Perry for Done With Mirrors.
Derek sporadically toured as a solo artist and has been back with Ted Nugent a number of times afterwards.

Reunion (2016)

So 35 years later, and during another lull in Aerosmith activity, Brad and Derek decided to get back together and see what happened. And damn, this is a good follow up.

Derek's voice is just as great, and Brad has always been able to play lead when he wants to. Like their first album, there's nothing particularly complicated about these songs, but they all rock hard. Even the more ballad-ey songs like Catch My Fall don't slow down the pace of the album that much.

Shapes and Shake It are highlights for me. Both turn the volume up and hit that heavy rock sweet-spot.
Like with some of Joe Perry's solo stuff, you can't help but wonder where all of this rockiness and song-writing goes when Brad is with Aerosmith?

Because the songs are pretty simple, there's not a whole lot more to say here. On the downside, the lyrics are a bit cliché and simple, but that doesn't bother me so much when the music is this fun.

Steven Tyler

We're All Somebody From Somewhere (2016)

It's shocking, really, that it took Steven Tyler until 2016 to record a solo album. He released his first solo single in 2011 titled (It) Feels So Good, which if I remember correctly was a reworked version of a discarded Aerosmith demo called Oxygen. That was a very poppy song. And so you might expect that Tyler's first solo album would have followed in that vein, but not quite. Instead Tyler recorded a country album...

Or at least, Tyler bills it as a country album. I'm not so sure. There are certainly country influences, and songs like Gypsy Girl, Somebody New and Sweet Louisiana could probably be called country. But the rest of the album is a weird mix of pop, blues and country-ish-but-not-quite.

As Tyler always pushed ballads more than other Aerosmith members, it's unsurprising that there are loads here. It Ain't Easy is a great vocal performance, and My Own Worst Enemy sounds like it could slip on to Nine Lives with its pseudo-Eastern influenced bridge and solo section.

It's not all soft, though. The title track is pretty bluesy, though you just know Tyler came up with the title as a weird saying and tried to work a song around it. The lyrics aren't great: 'And cornbread? Damn, I love that stuff'.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly & Me is the only song which could claim to be rock, but barely. Red, White & YOU is one of the rockier ballads, in that it could be an Aerosmith song if you squint your ears.

Ending the album are two peculiar covers. Janie Got A Gun, the Aerosmith song about domestic abuse from Pump, is stripped back and slowed down. I wonder if it was done to coincide with Tyler's promoting his charity for victims of domestic abuse? Obviously it's a good cause, but I just can't get to grips with this version of the song.
Finishing off the album is the classic Piece Of My Heart. It's a decent version.

I didn't think I'd like this album, and I didn't buy it until months after it came out. But actually, it's pretty good. It's a very summery album. Actually that's a much better label than country: this is a 'summer' album.

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It's a testament to each individual member's talent that all three of these Aerosmithians have produced good solo albums. Joe Perry has been the most prolific, but Brad and Steven have both made some very good music away from the band. I wonder why Tom Hamilton hasn't tried his hand at a solo album, especially given that he did vocals for an Aerosmith song on Music From Another Dimension! for the first time.

And to end this post, I'd encourage anyone and everyone to listen to Joe Perry (2005).

Aerosmith

As anyone who knows me knows, Aerosmith were at one point my favourite band of all time. I own everything they've ever released. All the live albums, B sides, songs that only got put on as bonus tracks to compilations, the works. I've even got Joe Perry's 5 solo albums, Steven Tyler's single and solo album and Brad Whitford's album he made with Derek St.Holmes. But I'll stick to studio albums released by Aerosmith, and maybe mention the live albums as a whole at the end.

If I seem a little biased at preferring the rockers to the ballads... it's because I am.

Briefly, Aerosmith is:

Steven Tyler - Vocals

Joe Perry - Lead Guitar

Brad Whitford - Rhythm Guitar

Tom Hamilton - Bass

Joey Kramer - Drums

So, lets get to it.

Aerosmith (1973)

Their self titled debut, Aerosmith, was a bit of a damp squib when it was first released to very little promotion. The now signature ballad Dream On was released as a single and did nothing until it was rereleased in 1975 following the much more popular Toys in the Attic.

There are two general issues I have with this album: the production is pretty terrible, and Steven Tyler puts on a different voice to the one he has. Apparently he was insecure about his natural singing voice (I may be misremembering, but I think in his autobiography Tyler said it was something about wanting to sound more blues-ey?) and so deliberately tried to sing differently. As a result the vocals stand out as peculiar when set against the rest of the catalogue.

Despite these issues, the songs are all fantastic. Movin' Out, the first song Tyler and Perry ever wrote, is probably my favourite Aerosmith song of all time. A catchy blues riff that goes to a lot of interesting different places. Dream on is a classic, if overplayed to death nowadays. Mama Kin is a live staple, and sounds infinitely better on literally any of the live albums.

The rest is reasonably standard bluesy Aerosmith, mixed with a bit of Boston rock feel.

Get Your Wings (1974)

Luckily Tyler got over his nerves by the second album, and sounds all the better for it, though the production is still a bit flat.

Opening with the hard blues-rocker Same Old Song And Dance, this album contains a lot of classic Aerosmith songs that still get played live (including this one, the Rockin' The Joint version is the best).

Tracks 2-5 constitute something of a no-man's land for standout tracks. SOS (Too Bad) is pretty good, but the other three evidence a slightly more experimental Aerosmith which doesn't quite work for them.

Train Kept A Rollin' is also a signature live song, being a cover of an old blues song from 1951. I was extremely disappointed to find out the Perry and Whitford didn't actually do the guitar solos on the record, having studio musicians fill in (presumably they were too stoned or something). But the live versions more than make up for this lapse.

Seasons of Wither is notable for having crowd noises at the beginning, taken from George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh for some reason, and was resurrected as a live song in the 00s. It's slow and moody, but it's got a charm.

The album closes with Pandora's Box, one of the only songs in the band's history to have a writing credit from Kramer. It's probably my second favourite song on the album after Same Old Song And Dance: it's just super bluesy and sleazy.

Toys In The Attic (1975)

It wasn't really until Toys In The Attic that Aerosmith became the superstars of 70s rock that they are now remembered as being... which is odd given that I think song-wise it's the weakest of the first three albums.

Opening with the best song, the title track, leads one to expect a fast paced hard rocking album, but on the whole it's rather slow and plodding. Uncle Salty is a peculiar slow song, and Adam's Apple is a filler-sounding blues rocker.

Walk This Way is, of course, one of the widest known Aerosmith songs following the Run DMC collaboration in 1986, and Sweet Emotion is also reasonably famous, but 3/9 isn't a fantastic hit rate.

Big Ten Inch Record is a fun short novelty song (guess what the joke is?), No More No More is inexplicably Tyler's favourite Aerosmith song but to me is just a mediocre bluesy song that goes nowhere. Round and Round is a bit too metal-ey for an Aerosmith song that they don't really pull off, and You See Me Crying is their first proper all out ballad which is fine but nothing special.

Rocks (1976)

Often regarded as their best album, Rocks does what it says on the tin. Back in the Saddle is a rock song fit for the Old West, and is one of the many songs that just gets better when played live (see the version on A Little South of Sanity).

Last Child is one of the rare songs where Whitford takes over lead duties, and proves that he's just as good as Perry.

Rats in the Cellar is up there in my top 5 Aerosmith songs, even if it was written as something of an amusing riposte to the title track of the prior album. Combination is Perry's first stab at lead vocals (shared with Tyler), and would lay the foundation for him usually having 1 song on each album which he sings. Sick As A Dog, Get The Lead Out and Lick and a Promise are the closest we get to filler, but each is played with such intensity that one tends to overlook the lower quality of song-writing.

Nobody's Fault is one of the band's favourite songs, and this time I agree with them. Although their flirtation with being slightly experimental failed (in my opinion) on Get Your Wings, the more complex song structure of Nobody's Fault suggests that they could potentially have gone in that direction and made a success of it, but probably better to have a few scattered songs like this than an album of mediocre ones.

As with Toys In The Attic, the album closes with a ballad. A little on the nose as it seems to have been written for the specific purpose of saying goodbye to the crowd at the end of a concert, but Perry's guitar puts this way above You See Me Crying in my book.

Draw The Line (1977)

According to various biographies and autobiographies, most of the band can't stand to listen to this album any more as all they can hear are the drugs.

This is a shame as it's got some properly good stuff on it, but sometimes one is able to detect that the drugs were starting to get in the way...

The title track is a fantastic song, and continues the trend of the opening songs of albums usually being one of the best. Live versions of this also markedly improve it, with a further instrumental break often being added in the middle (see the Rockin The Joint version).

The other highlights are probably the Perry-sung Bright Light Fright, which is pretty much about the feeling of waking up hungover and wanting to avoid bright lights, and Kings and Queens which appears to be an attempt to make an 'epic' song and mostly succeeds.

Elsewhere, Tyler's fun innuendo laden lyrics seem to have lost the 'fun' as Get It Up just doesn't really work. Critical Mass, The Hand That Feeds and Sight For Sore Eyes are all pretty good blues rockers, but none stand out as fantastic.

The band seem pretty sore in retrospect about not having enough original material to fill an album - recording 1930s blues song Milk Cow Blues to close - but I quite like it, and it's reasonably obscure enough (and different from the original, if a bit too similar to The Kinks' version) so that most probably didn't realise it was one.

Night In The Ruts (1979)

Well this and the next three albums will probably be skipped through rather quickly.

Night in the Ruts is not a good album. Keeping up tradition, the opening song (No Surprise) is great and is about the day they got a record deal. I'm a little sad they've not released a live version, but oh well.

Other than that, I have very little nice to say about this. Perry quit the band half way through recording, and so doesn't appear on much of it, and you can tell. It literally sounds as if the band sort of gave up. The slow plodding tempo of the rest of the songs doesn't help.

To further confuse things, Tyler has allegedly cited this as his favourite Aerosmith album! And Perry thinks it's ok too! Madness.

Oddly for Aerosmith, given that the most covers they'd ever done on an album was 1 prior to this, 3/9 on this album are covers. I'm reminded of Beatles for Sale...

Rock In A Hard Place (1982)

The only album not to feature Perry (and Whitford, who only played on Lightning Strikes), on the whole this record probably gets more flak than it actually deserves.

Don't get me wrong, it definitely does deserve a lot of criticism, but I think people hate it more for the lack of Perry and Whitford than for the quality of the songs.

Jailbait is a reasonably good opener, and Bolivian Ragamuffin and the title track both sound like Draw The Line-era songs. Push Comes To Shove deserves a mention for some great harmonica from Tyler and being one of the most swinging-blues songs Aerosmith have ever done.
Other than that, it's not worth your time.

Done With Mirrors (1985)

Perry and Whitford had returned, and this was to be their great comeback album! Unfortunately it feels almost exactly the same as Night in the Ruts.

The opening song is, to be fair, amazing. Let The Music Do The Talking might have suggested to some that the band had got their song-writing chops back, unfortunately it's a cover from one of Perry's solo albums. Though Tyler largely rewrote the lyrics (for the better), the music sounds exactly the same.

The rest of the album just sounds as if they're not really trying. The Hop has some life to it, but other than that this album should probably be left well alone.

Permanent Vacation (1987)

Now this is a comeback album, following hot off the heels of their immensely popular collaboration with Run DMC for Walk This Way.

Money was clearly invested in to this album as the production values are miles above anything prior. It seems money was also spent on hiring outside songwriters which, given the quality of the last 3 albums, seemed depressingly necessary.

Permanent Vacation set the template for every Aerosmith album (except Pump) up to the present day and, for better or worse, it's been a massive success for them. That template is upping the ballad count from maybe one an album, to having around half of the album consisting of ballads.

The most famous songs from this album are easily Dude (Looks Like A Lady) and Angel, both of which are good radio friendly songs.

Heart's Done Time, Magic Touch, Simoriah, Girl Keeps Coming Apart and the title track are all reasonably similar in that they all sound like somewhat generic 80s rock.

Rag Doll is my personal favourite, having Perry on slide guitar to create a super sleazy and bluesy feel. But I'm also a big fan of Hangman's Jury which, along with St John, constitute a weird attempt to make slow, dark bluesy songs. Maybe it's the harmonica again?

Rounding off the album is a cover of no-one's favourite Beatles' song, I'm Down (although the version on Anthology 2 is alright), and very bassey instrumental - The Movie.

Overall, this was clearly an attempt to make Aerosmith contemporary to the 80s music scene, and it very well succeeded.

Pump (1989)

Probably their best album since the 70s, Pump was a non-stop rock fest. Young Lust and F.I.N.E. (Fucked Up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional, in case you wondered) let Tyler flex his innuendo muscle for the first time in over a decade, and he doesn't disappoint.

Love in an Elevator and The Other Side continue the generic 80s feel, though both do it very well.

Monkey On My Back is an odd song lyric-wise, but Perry's riffing is irresistible. Janie's Got A Gun is another odd one: you don't expect many songs about domestic abuse. But it's handled reasonably well, and led Tyler to set up a charity for victims of domestic abuse, so perhaps it's done some good.

My Girl, Don't Get Mad Get Even and Hoodoo/Voodoo Medicine Man round off the rockers, and although none obviously stand out, they also don't feel like filler either.

Ending the album is a ballad which is often claimed to be the one ballad that even the rocker fans have to admit is good. And it is. What It Takes is an emotional ride from start to finish, and is proof that ballads don't have to be boring.

Get A Grip (1993)

Returning to the approximate 50/50 rocker/ballad template is Get A Grip. Leading the ballad charge was Crazy, but was closely followed by Cryin' and Amazing.

Also put out as a single was Tyler's attempt at a 'We Are The World'-type song in the form of Living on the Edge. It's fine, but something just doesn't feel right about Aerosmith playing a song about climate change and racism.

Back in rock territory is the food-pun-filled Eat The Rich, which for some reason works really well. Why they decided to name the song Eat The Rich when Motörhead had released a song called Eat The Rich 6 years earlier to accompany the 1987 film of the same name I'll never know.

Get A Grip, Shut Up And Dance and Line Up fill out the 'rocky but a bit meh' quota. Fever and Flesh are a bit more interesting, with the former being the only song on the album written by members of the band alone. Walk on Down is Perry's vocal-piece, but it's not one of his better ones.

Rounding off Get A Grip was another instrumental, Boogie Man, which wasn't quite a good as The Movie.

Nine Lives (1997)

Every so often I think this is my favourite Aerosmith album, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps because it was one of the first I bought? (Rocks was actually the first Aerosmith album I bought, followed by this one).
Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees) and Pink are just very good radio songs. Pink stands out in particular to me as it reminds me slightly of Pandora's Box from Get Your Wings.

So the ballads: Hole in My Soul, Full Circle, Kiss Your Past Goodbye and Fallen Angels. I actually like all of these except the last which goes on for a monumental 8 minutes, which is far too long for an Aerosmith song.
Close to being a ballad but not quite is Ain't That A Bitch, which I think feels more like a slower bluesy song, but it's close.
The opening title track once again keeps up the tradition of starting with a bang, especially with Tyler screaming like a cat in severe distress at the start. Taste of India is a bit too George Harrison for Aerosmith to pull off, but it's not bad.

Something's Gotta Give and Crash both come very close to sounding almost metal, which is strange, but they're both very good hard rockers.
The Farm is Whitford's favourite Aerosmith song (I've no idea why the band has such odd opinions of their own music), and is as psychedelic as Aerosmith ever got.

Falling Off is, in my opinion, one of Perry's better vocal songs, which is followed up by my favourite song on the album: Attitude Adjustment. It's just got a good riff and fun vocals ('Do the wings of your butter-fly?').

For the sake of completeness, I should mention I Don't Want To Miss A Thing which was a bonus track on some editions of this album. Anyone who knows me well enough knows I hate this song. It is one of only two songs which had no musical or lyrical input from the band, despite it being possibly their most famous song ever.

Just Push Play (2001)

Entering the new millennia, what would Aerosmith do to reinvent themselves? Well the answer seemed to be to add Jamaican scat sections and overproduce the album to hell.  

The album starts well enough, they always do. Beyond Beautiful is a good rocking song up there with the other opening tracks. We stay with the rockers in to track 2, Just Push Play, which has the aforementioned scat sections. It's weird, but it's fun.

Then the ballads come in: Jaded, Fly Away From Here, Sunshine, Luv Lies, Avant Garden. Only Jaded comes close to the quality of previous ballads, the rest are reasonably forgettable.

Trip Hoppin', Under My Skin, Outta Your Head, Light Inside and Drop Dead Gorgeous (Perry-sung) try to claw back some rocking credibility but none really quite get there - sounding more like pop trying to be rock rather than the other way around.

Surprisingly, one of the best things on the album was a European only bonus track: Face. It's a fun acoustic song and probably should be been worked on more to include on the album proper.

Honkin' On Bobo (2004)

Having done a cover or so on a couple of albums, and wanting to go back to their blues roots, Aerosmith decided to record an album of classic blues covers.

Though the song selection is predictable and unremarkable, the songs are rocked up, sped up, and made much louder. Aerosmith do excess very well.

Road Runner, Shame Shame Shame, Stop Messin' Around (Perry) and Baby Please Don't Go all evidence a blues-rocking Aerosmith that had been missing from the last album of overproduced pop. 

More sensitivity is, properly, given to Never Loved A Girl (originally 'Man') which I really like. One original is present, as they tried to write a song that would fit in without anyone noticing, and it's pretty good: though The Grind is one of the slower songs on the album, it doesn't feel out of place.

The only misstep on the album is the closer: a gospel choir-ish rendition of Jesus is on the Main Line. Other than that, this is a very good album.

Music From Another Dimension! (2012)

Over a decade since they had released an album of original music, MFAD was hotly anticipated by the Blue Army. In what felt like an attempt to overcompensate for this drought, the extended version of the album runs to 18 songs lasting 1hr 21mins! Predictably, it's a very mixed bag.

We could probably have done without the spoken word intro and outro, but the opening song, Luv XXX, is a decent rocker to start proceedings. Oh Yeah follows, which is decent but feels like it never quite gets where it wants to go.

The ballads are many: What Could Have Been Love, Can't Stop Lovin' You, We All Fall Down, Closer and Another Last Goodbye. The first is probably up there with the Get A Grip ballads. Can't Stop Lovin' You was a misguided (and allegedly secret) attempt by Tyler to add some country to the album, as he snuck in Carrie Underwood to provide guest vocals: an indicator of things to come, as Tyler was soon to record and release a solo country album...

We All Fall Down is the second song to not have any band writing input, so I'll ignore it. Closer is alright but forgettable in a Just Push Play way. Another Last Goodbye stands out for a number of reasons: the only instruments are strings so it basically only has Tyler on it, and Tyler uses his falsetto.

Returning to the rockers, Beautiful and Out Go The Lights are reasonably good, although the latter suffers from an outro that never ends à la I Want You (She's So Heavy). Legendary Child was the lead single and was meant to recapture the feel of Walk This Way, and I think it mostly succeeds. My favourite song on the album is easily Street Jesus: it's kind of feels like a faster Kings and Queens from Get Your Wings.

Lover Alot was meant to be the a call-back to Rocks levels of rockiness, but in my opinion it feels a lot closer to Something's Gotta Give and Crash from Nine Lives. Still good, if a bit repetitive (how many things can you rhyme with 'a lot'?).

Perry gets 3 whole songs this time! Freedom Fighter is fun, though the political commentary on terrorism feels a bit forced. Something and Oasis In The Night are fine, but could have probably been trimmed to make a sleeker album.

The first ever lead vocal by a band member other than Tyler or Perry follows, with Hamilton taking the lead (with some background support from Tyler) on Up On The Mountain. Oddly, this is one of my favourite songs on the album, and Mr Sweet Emotion does a reasonable job at it.

The normal version of the album ends with Another Last Goodbye, but the bonus version ends with Sunny Side of Love - a Just Push Play sounding, mid tempo, acoustic-ey semi-ballad. It's fine, but doesn't stand out.

Live! Bootleg (1978)

Classics Live! 1 & 2 (1986 and 1987)

A Little South Of Sanity (1998)

Rockin' The Joint (2005)

Rocks Donnington (2015)

  

Apologies for the cover layout here, it all went a bit mad and I can't fix it.

So these 5 albums are partly the reason why I have about 10 different versions of Walk This Way.Although there is a lot of overlap in songs, there is just enough variation so that I can fool myself that it was worth getting all 5. Rockin' The Joint and A Little South of Sanity are probably the best in terms of sound quality and song choices, although Bootleg is also pretty good as it's from their 70s heydays. Classics 1 & 2 aren't worth getting unless you really need a live version of Kings and Queens.

Donnington is good for having a few more obscure songs, and the odd song from more recent albums, but it's not my favourite. On the other hand it's a reasonably good selection of songs from all Aerosmith eras, so perhaps better to buy if you've not got any.