Aerosmith sure knew how to rock in the mid-70s. It's hard to believe this is the same band that shat out "Janie's Got a Gun" and "Pink". This album mostly carries an unpolished crunchy garage-band sound that fits well with Steven Tyler's proto-glam voice (for him anyway. Glam-rock was already well established, but Tyler's early voice was a coarse high-tenor with a touch of flamboyance, nothing like he'd eventually morph into). Most of the songs on here are forgettable and feature uninspired (and at times undecipherable) sexual lyrics. The two good songs on here are very very good and deservedly remain rock staples to this day.
I'm talking first of "Walk This Way", which is one of the tightest hard rock songs ever recorded (Joey Kramer on drums is outstanding), then "Sweet Emotion", which is easily my favorite Aerosmith song. Not many rock songs feature 3 awesome guitar riffs- it's hard enough to come up with one. Also appearing here is "No More No More" which I've heard before but only noticed now it's a pretty good song.
The second half of the album shows a bit more composing poise. "You See Me Crying" is a strange mix of Aerosmith's hard rock edge and corn-ball movie soundtrack orchestration. I'm not sure if I like it because it's genuinely good or because it's sorta funny. Regardless it was a nice expansion of the album's garage sound so I admire the work.
This is the third and final Aerosmith album I'll be reviewing as part of my project, and was definitely the best of the three. I'm a little surprised none of the Aerosmith albums I've had to review included "Dream On". Usually one mega-hit is enough to justify a whole album appearing on this list. Oh well. 3 stars.
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