Aerosmith
Get Your Wings

THE REVIEW

When I bought this record, the second for the Bostonian group, honestly it didn't "inspire" me much, maybe because of the not-so-positive reviews on newspapers or websites, or maybe because after the success of "Dream On" everything else has faded into the background. However, when I saw the CD at a stall in Genoa, I couldn't resist.

The product came out in 1974, Aerosmith was still performing in clubs, and in America, they were still fresh from the success of the ballad "Dream On". In my opinion, this album was overlooked because it didn't contain such popular songs, although, in reality, this isn't entirely true since "Season of Wither" has little to envy from the already mentioned "Dream On". Here, the tracks have a more aggressive sound than the first album and also take a direction towards a hard rock sound, which would explode in the following "Toys in the Attic".

Let's leave this introduction and start the review. The work opens with "Same Old Song and Dance", which has a beautiful guitar riff and from the start shows us how much the group has matured, especially lead guitarist Joe Perry, who plays solos much more frequently. Steven Tyler begins to find his characteristic voice, although we're still far from what it is today. The track also has a good brass section to further enhance the blues feel. This piece is followed by "Lord of the Thighs", which is perhaps the part of the album I like the least despite being anything but bad. It's too repetitive and doesn't stand out for any quality, but it must be admitted that this song transforms completely live. It continues with the semi-ballad "Spaced", with fairly powerful riffs and a Tyler delivering one of his best performances: starting calm and reaching a very high vocal range, also noteworthy is the fine drum work.

One of the most beautiful moments of the album arrives now, it’s "Woman of the World", which in structure reminds one of "Movin' Out" from the first album. The song is truly beautiful, with the heavy and powerful opening riff and then Mr. Tyler's singing, calm at first and then more intense like the rest of the song; also note the blues influence, and if this song resembles "Movin' out", "S.O.S." resembles "Somebody" in every way, but here the effect is harder still and the rhythm pulls you along with the band.

The guitar strumming by Whitford and the solos by Perry introduce "Train Kept a Rollin'", the song is a cover of the Yardbirds and the quintet pays tribute in the best possible way, and here Perry is truly inspired. It should be noted that applause was inserted halfway through the song, making it seem more live; the same goes for "Season of Wither", which starts with boos from the audience: "Booooo!" and then the acoustic guitar riff played by Steven Tyler begins, delivering the best performance on the album, lots of high notes for a truly exceptional song. The final piece arrives, "Pandora's Box", which I really like a lot, it’s the most hard rock moment of the album, where the Aerosmith riff even resembles Deep Purple, and Tyler's articulate singing gives us a performance worthy of him, closing the album in style.

An album in my opinion is very underrated because it concretizes and improves what was good about the previous work, furthermore, all the band members have improved, and in the years following, Aerosmith would enter the rock Olympus.