It’s with more than a little trepidation that I crack open Aerosmith’s Music from Another Dimension!. Based on the first tune, “LUV XXX,” I have hope. Though a rather sluggish rocker that never seems to find its footing, it’s good and loud and features the songwriting skills of the infamous Toxic Twins — vocalist, lyricist and former American Idol judge Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry. I am heartened by this fact and that maybe on the band’s 15th studio album (their first of all-new material since 2001’s Just Push Play), the band and their producer Jack Douglas, the man behind such iconic Aerosmith records as Toys In The Attics and Rocks, eschewed outside songwriters and let the band get on with the task of writing and playing.
Work on this album supposedly began in 2006, around the time when a lot of drama started circling around — Steven Tyler almost left (or got kicked out, depending on who you ask), Tom Hamilton’s scare with cancer, and tour mishaps (notably, Tyler’s 2009 fall from the stage at Sturgis and another 2011 accident in Paraguay). With all that fading in the rear-view mirror, we’re lucky we this 15-song collection at all.
Luckily, outside songsmiths Jim Vallance, Desmond Child and Dianne Warren made minimal contributions and the tunes are pretty much what you’d expect — commercially friendly, well produced, and lacking what made Aerosmith America’s answer to the Rolling Stones in the early 70s. Child’s “Legendary Child” is a worthy listen and even sounds like those super-duper Aerosmith tunes we heard from Permanent Vacation onward when the band was enjoying its MTV resurrection.
Not surprisingly it is when the band — and that includes drummer Joey Kramer as well as Hamilton and guitarist Brad Whitford — have a hand in the writing that the tunes work best. The roiling nasty “Street Jesus,” the rap-tastic “Beautiful,” and the bass grumbling of “Lover Alot” are just a few examples of what this band can do when they stay in-house with their songwriting and get on making records like they used to.
Hamilton weighs in not only with an acoustic-based love song, “Tell Me,” but his first-ever vocal on the strutting, slide-led “Up On A Mountain,” available as a bonus track “Something” sees the band incorporating an organ with a Joe Perry vocal, while guest Johnny Depp sings over the riffery of “Freedom Fighter” and Carrie Underwood duets with Tyler on the country pop number, “Can’t Stop Loving You.” Collectively, The band seems to be putting its weight into songs like the torchy “Closer” and another bonus track, “Oasis In The Night.”
But has it all been worth it? This is certainly the best Aerosmith album in quite some time, even as the inclusion of outside songwriters and players (like the band’s touring keyboardist and vocalist Russ Irwin) makes me wonder why the five members of Aerosmith can’t just get in a room, jam, play, write and record like they used to. Taken aside, Music From Another Dimension! ain’t a bad record.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
