Aerosmith
Get a Grip

THE REVIEW

Aerosmith is one of the few rock bands (the only one?) to have withstood the toughest test for a band: the test of time. In fact, perhaps they've done even more: they managed to produce some of their best chapters in the latter part of their career, after excellent debut albums. Probably the crisis that gripped the members throughout the Eighties meant that the best came afterward, all at once, as if it had been trapped for too long; and the album in question then represents the exit from the tunnel.

Between December 1991 and January 1993, Aerosmith entered the recording studio with one precise goal: to reclaim past glories, and with them the fans who had long been waiting for a work up to par. Well, let's try to put ourselves in the shoes of someone who, in 1993, just bought the vinyl or cassette, and impatiently puts it on the turntable or in the radio: a few seconds in and the Intro starts, a bit disorienting, to be honest. Have Run DMC perhaps brought an influence... too strong? Here comes the immediate rebuttal: the pure Hard Rock of Eat The Rich, the best track on the album, picks up the intro, the riff from Walk This Way and for the rest grants itself an unprecedented explosion of energy, further highlighted by Kramer's drumming. Get a Grip contains the best vocal performance of the entire LP, while in Livin' on The Edge Tom Hamilton delivers an excellent bass solo. Perhaps the trio of ballads Cryin', Crazy, and Amazing seem slightly out of place within the definitive context, but they serve only to remind - for those who had forgotten - that Aerosmith, besides being those of Walk This Way and Eat The Rich, are also those of Dream On (just to give an example).

We've just entered the '90s, MTV is booming, and also thanks to the video for Crazy and the resulting commercial success of the album, the band earned no less than 7 platinum records. Aerosmith was back, and if we wanted to make a comparison with their "mentors" the Stones, who in the same year signed Steel Wheels, well, I'd say there’s no contest. Or is there?