The album nobody but Steven Tyler wanted is here and it is neither good, nor bad - it's just disappointing. I'm pretty sure now that Steven Tyler destroyed Aerosmith - he wanted to do too much whining, probably inspired by the extreme successes of the ballads from Get a Grip and I Don't Want to Miss a Thing and while he is great at doing an occasional power ballad, perhaps the greatest,The album nobody but Steven Tyler wanted is here and it is neither good, nor bad - it's just disappointing. I'm pretty sure now that Steven Tyler destroyed Aerosmith - he wanted to do too much whining, probably inspired by the extreme successes of the ballads from Get a Grip and I Don't Want to Miss a Thing and while he is great at doing an occasional power ballad, perhaps the greatest, the quality needs to be there and it is generally not the case on this album.
From the somewhat promising "My Own Worst Enemy" which does contain some ok lyrics and a fine performance we get to the title track, one of the few "rockers" on the album and it is - well overly simplistic and a lesson in nothingness, at least "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and Me" is somewhat better.
I kinda like "I Make My Own Sunshine", but of course then I realised this is a cover, reminding me that there is not much left in Steven Tyler's box of tricks. Another thing that made me realize that was the cover of Aerosmiths "Janie's Got a Gun" - it's clearly the inferior version, not that it is necessarily a bad version, but why? Of course we also have the two singles "Love is Your Name", a whiny, but enjoyable hippie-esque song, complete with big bucks promo video with Steven looking cool/weird and hanging out with much younger people and the completely forgettable and cheesy "Red, White and You".
I also need to mention "Only Heaven" which sounds as it could have been a song that Steven would have forced on an Aerosmith album, much to the dismay of Joe and probably Brad - It's is well done and his voice shines, but it is not the best of the power ballads, but again that doesn't necessarily makes it a disaster because the bar is set extremely high, I just don't dig it that much.
I do listen to this album a lot at the moment, mostly because I've enjoyed Aerosmith's music for several decades now and I want to love it, but I really can't - I can occasionally like it, but I keep feeling disappointed and wanting something else.
One thing I can say is that this album is relatively consistent in it's theme, unlike the ridiculous "Music From Another Dimension" from Aerosmith which lacked any focus whatsoever and in spite of some good songs here and there, overall was a piece you know what.
I don't like the talk of Aerosmith going on a farewell tour - sure they don't do much great new music, but I would rather see them try one last time to make a better swan song than "Music From Another Dimension" and to see their shows, than watch Steven Tyler proceed down this road.
Anyway - listen to the album and make up your own mind. Don't expect Aerosmith, don't expect country. Expect an unambitious album, with ok tracks here and there, with a little too much banjo, but nothing to write home about.… Expand
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