Permanent Vacation – Aerosmith (1987)

**** It seemed like everything was over for Aerosmith until they got the call from producer Rick Rubin, who was working with a young rap group called Run-DMC that were interested in collaborating with Aerosmith and re-cutting their classic record “Walk This Way.” Seizing the opportunity to become relevant again, Aerosmith jumped at it and…

Done With Mirrors – Aerosmith (1985)

*** Aerosmith fans may have tricked themselves into thinking the return of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford to the band meant this comeback album was good, but the truth is this is as bad as Aerosmith ever got. Completely blowing their big return, the members of Aerosmith rushed to get an album out in order…

Rock in a Hard Place – Aerosmith (1982)

***1/2 Often considered the worst Aerosmith album ever, if you even consider it an Aerosmith album at all (considering its lack of both Joe Perry and Brad Whitford), Rock in a Hard Place is an album for which I have always nonetheless rooted. It was the last Aerosmith album that I ever bought in an…

Pandora’s Box – Aerosmith (1991)

**** I’ve always been intrigued by Pandora’s Box. It was years after I thought that I had listened to every song Aerosmith ever recorded that I discovered it, and I was immediately filled with excitement. It was my first box set, and even though it contained a lot of music that I already had, the…

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…

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…

Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs: 190-171

190. “Back in Black” – AC/DC This was Bryan Johnson’s introduction to the world as the frontman of AC/DC after the death of Bon Scott, and he arrived all guns blazing and armed to the teeth with one of the greatest riffs of all time and the killer flow (and high register) to back it…