AEROSMITH - Music from Another Dimension!
FORMAT: CD REALEASE DATE: 06.11.2012 RECORD COMPANY: Columbia Records 7.5
METALFAN RATING: 8.1
USERS RATING: 8 votes
Top 2012: #252 |
Aerosmith LINE UP: Steven Tyler - voce Joe Perry - chitara, voce Brad Whitford - chitara Tom Hamilton - bas Joey Kramer - tobe |
TRACKLIST: 01. LUV XXX02. Oh Yeah03. Beautiful04. Tell Me05. Out Go the Lights06. Legendary Child07. What Could Have Been Love08. Street Jesus09. Can't Stop Loving You10. Lover Alot11. We All Fall Down12. Freedom Fighter13. Closer14. Something15. Another Last Goodbye |
2012 has been a very rich year in quality rock albums. It seems that fear of the Apocalypse made the big bands find inspiration and really get down to it. Each of these records was a pleasant surprise given the generally mediocre products released in the past years. However, none of them was as pleasant a surprise as Aerosmith’s 15th full studio album!
I wasn’t expecting anything good from Aerosmith, given that in the last 20 years their music has gone into acute commercialism and their image was excessively tabloidic. Nevertheless, many of the songs on Music from Another Dimension! seem to come indeed from a parallel dimension that gave us, a long time ago, Permanent Vacation (1987), Pump (1989) or even the classic pair Toys in the Attic (1975) – Rocks (1976).
Most of the album is unexpectedly energetic, fresh, simple, varied, and... rock’n’roll! From the first listen many songs reminded me why I have loved Aerosmith for so many years. The original combination of hard rock, blues, soul with a bit of psychedelic rock and many Stones and Beatles influences is found in great amounts on Music from Another Dimension!
While Luv XXX and Something (sung by Joe Perry with Steven Tyler on the drums) are two examples of the Beatles influence (psychedelic period), Oh Yeah and Out Go the Lights are pure rock’n’soul, with backing vocals, long jams and the whole set. Further on, Beautiful has cute reminiscences from the 80s rap (a tribute to the famous cooperation with Run DMC?), Street Jesus sounds like Sweet Emotion, Lover Alot is perhaps the heaviest Aerosmith song (with how Tom Hamilton’s bass sounds), and Freedom Fighter (also sung by Joe Perry, with a little help from Johnny Depp) is a completely different song, but such a catchy chorus!
So, we have reached the weak points of the album, and in my opinion these are the 6 ballads (!) and the first single, Legendary Child. The latter sounds exactly like what it is – a lost song from Get a Grip (1993). And about the ballads... Aerosmith are responsible for one of the most beautiful ballads in rock music, Dream On, but also for atrocities like I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. Unfortunately, the ballads on Music from Another Dimension! are too many and too uninspired. Only Closer manages to get something through, but only up to the banal chorus that ruins the whole mood. Their classic albums from the 70s that I mentioned above had about 40 minutes and contained one ballad each; the ones from the 80s had about 50 minutes and also contained one ballad. In 2012, Music from Another Dimension! has 68 minutes and contains no less than 6 slow songs, all of them poorer than You See Me Crying, Home Tonight, Angel or What It Takes!
If it were more concentrated, these album could have been the shot in the arm that the Toxic Twins had been needing for so long. Even in this diluted form, Music from Another Dimension! manages to bring Aerosmith back afloat. It remains to be seen how long this is going to last.
Gedi Nota: 7.5
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