Night in the Ruts – Aerosmith (1979)

***1/2 For some reason, the members of Aerosmith seem to look back more fondly on Night in the Ruts than Draw the Line. I’m not sure why. It may have been less painful to record, but Night in the Ruts struggled to produce any songs worth remembering and was certainly the worst Aerosmith album up…

Draw the Line – Aerosmith (1977)

***1/2 Draw the Line has always been viewed as the album where Aerosmith started to slip, and indeed it is. Though there are a number of songs on the album that are right at home in Aerosmith’s ’70s catalog like the title track and “I Wanna Know Why,” there are just as many songs that…

Rocks – Aerosmith (1976)

****1/2 Maybe it’s because I tend to be harder on things I love the most (it took me until a month or so ago to finally admit that Fallout 3 is worthy of a perfect score), but listening to Rocks today has been a bit more sobering than Get Your Wings and Toys in the…

Super Mario Sunshine (2002)

8.75 Like many of the First Party titles to come out of the Gamecube era, Super Mario Sunshine is an unorthodox take on a Nintendo faithful, full of water, and is a divisive entry among legions of fans. As PeanutButterGamer so eloquently pointed out on his list of the Top 10 Mario games of all…

Get Your Wings – Aerosmith (1974)

B+ Aerosmith has always been my favorite band and their debut album has always been in my top three favorites from them (topped, naturally, by Toys in the Attic and Rocks). As such, I’ve always been annoyed that it often gets passed over in favor of its follow-up Get Your Wings, which I never considered…

Aerosmith – Aerosmith (1973)

A Aerosmith’s 1973 debut is without a doubt one of the greatest Rock n’ Roll debuts of all time and remains a criminally underrated album that added greatly to the golden age of the genre. Its inclusion of “Dream on” (and to a lesser extent, “Mama Kin”) are what bring casual listeners to the table, but…

Stuck – Adelitas Way (2014)

***1/2 Armed with a new, much better producer, yet another different guitarist, and some great songs, Stuck is by far the best of Adelitas Way’s four studio albums. Gone are the regrettable cliche-riddled songs that plagued Home School Valedictorian (or at least there’s less of them) and they’re replaced by some of the most sonically satisfying…

Home School Valedictorian – Adelitas Way (2011)

*** Lacking the lyrical and musical prowess that New School Rock band Adelitas Way achieved on their first album, Home School Valedictorian was a decidedly garden variety affair that offered plenty to please fans of the band and their genre, but virtually nothing to garner new ones outside those confines. While nothing here other than…

Burnes Turns: Feb. 16-22, 2017

In what is probably my strongest list yet, my favorite songs of the week include a sobering sermon from Father John Misty, an outlaw jam from Houndmouth, and an Electro-Rock masterpiece from Japandroids. Treat yourself to my five favorite tracks of the week. “Arc of Bar” – Japandroids Dylan-esque lyricism meets an unbelievably over the…

Near to the Wild Heart of Life – Japandroids (2017)

**** Japandroids’ first album in four years marks a significant change in tone for the Canadian Rock duo of Brian King and David Prowse, favoring a more polished studio sound over the Garage Rock-y vibes of their previous work. But that isn’t to say their Punk roots aren’t still here in full effect as King provides…