Aerosmith
Pump

THE REVIEW

Aerosmith is a band that reached the height of its fame in the '70s, although they earned the nickname "Toxic Twins" due to their heavy drug abuse, which in 1978 brought the band to the brink of breakup. This occurred when guitarist Joe Perry, tired of singer Steven Tyler's excesses, walked away during the recording of "Night in the Ruts," leading to Jimmy Crespo stepping in. Brad Whitford also left later on, and the band replaced him with Rick Dufay, resulting in the release of "Rock in a Hard Place," a decent album, yet unsuccessful. The two original guitarists then returned, leading to the release of "Done With the Mirrors," a respectable album, followed by the double "Classic Live" and in 1987 "Permanent Vacation," bringing us to 1989 with "Pump."

Good. Let's leave this slice of history and move on to the review. The album opens with "Young Lust", a very intense track that, if you will, makes clear the band’s intention to move away from the glam that influenced their previous work. In this song, we see Tyler truly in great shape and the usual inspiration from Perry, also noteworthy is the brief drum solo at the end by Joey Kramer. It immediately segues with "F.I.N.E.", a very fast song where Tyler seldom takes a breath, just to simulate the excited atmosphere of the very erotic lyrics. Unfortunately, Perry's solo is missing, but it's okay as is. A crowd and the words of a kind and "dirty" lady introduce "Love in an Elevator", another "hot" track with great riffs, truly expressive singing from Tyler, well-organized backing vocals, a nice chorus, and spectacular solos from Perry. In my opinion, this is the best song on the album. The fourth song is "Monkey on My Back", with a somewhat hypnotic introduction that gives way to a very intense rhythm. Here, Tyler sings at incredibly high notes, and the mid-song scream is memorable, also noteworthy are the lyrics about drugs and the difficulty of overcoming them. The "Water Song" serves as an introduction to a piece that will become a classic of Aerosmith, in this case, "Janie's Got a Gun", with really low notes at the beginning that gradually increase, and Mr. Tyler’s high notes leave a mark. Some mandolin notes lead us into the driving rhythm of "The Other Side", another classic, although I think this song is a bit overrated. We move on to track number seven, "My Girl", which adds nothing nor detracts from this album.

Meanwhile, we're nearing the final part of this album, with "Don’t Get Mad, Get Even", a track that starts calm but then adopts the style of the others, just like the much finer "Voodoo Medicine Man", where the singer absolutely gives the impression of being unable to stay calm. Now we come to a gem of this masterpiece, "What it Takes", a truly spectacular ballad with Tyler at his finest, sweet singing, but at times very high, and thus we close this LP beautifully.

In my opinion, Aerosmith's style has changed, and they have also made some "enemies," as many fans have disowned the band, accusing them of becoming too commercial. Well! In some sense, it's true, but after all, sometimes you need to change style.