Aerosmith
Rock In A Hard Place

THE REVIEW

The 1982 is the year that sees Aerosmith's return to the scene after 3 years of silence since the release of "Night in The Ruts" in '79. Steven Tyler, Joey Kramer, and Tom Hamilton, the only survivors of the original line-up, recruit Jim Crespo, already with the band during the last tour, and Rick Dufay, the latter as a rhythm guitarist. The product of this collaboration will be "Rock In A Hard Place," the seventh studio album for the American group.

As one can easily deduce, the period for Aero is not the best: the loss of two fundamental elements like Perry and Whitford creates a void in the formation that the newcomers, although skilled, barely manage to fill (even live, in my opinion); furthermore, the poor conditions of the vocalist are added, having plunged deep into a drug whirlwind, so much so that, as documented, he will collapse on stage several times. The album that emerges from this tumultuous situation is precisely conditioned by the band's progressive self-destruction and by the limits imposed by the poor synergy between new and old members.

Despite this discouraging picture, the album actually starts off excellently: the opener Jailbait has a frantic and engaging rhythm, features a Tyler in great shape with excellent high notes, and boasts a truly great riff. Definitely the best track on the album, so much so that Perry himself will later admit in an interview to be a bit jealous of the song. The next track is Lightning Strikes, a good cover by Richie Supa, which keeps the album at a more than decent level without, however, impressing too much. Probably the piece belonged to a previous session, as Whitford is still featured on the rhythm guitar. A slow and melodic start introduces the next Bitch's Brew, which showcases a fairly hard riff accompanied, in contrast, by a very melodic singing, especially in the refrain. It is precisely in this kind of compositions that Perry's absence is felt the most, not surprisingly the piece as a whole turns out to be rather banal. The same can be said for the subsequent Bolivian Ragamuffin: excellent vocal lines, good riff but nothing more, in short, a driven hard rock that does not characterize that particular touch that in the past had distinguished Aerosmith's music.

Perhaps a small surprise is the cue offered by Cry Me A River, an electric ballad in which the band finally recovers to a decent standard: Tyler impresses and the highs follow him well; Certainly, compared to the previous two, a good piece. Then it's time for Prelude To Joanie, where an electronic voice recites a poem written by the vocalist and reported on the album's back, which introduces the peculiar ballad Joanie's Butterfly; the song excessively loses itself in unnecessary and repetitive phrases and presents rather annoying percussion, however, it is certainly not to be thrown away and finally denotes a good guitar work by Dufay and Crespo. An upsurge is seen with the title track: Rock in A Hard Place (Cheshire Cat) seems like a piece coming out from "Draw The Line," with a captivating chorus and an amusing meow by Tyler in the final part of the piece, and strong of a well-conceived rhythm by Kramer. Jig Is Up declines again into banality, the funky touch added by Crespo is worthless, the piece is boring and inconclusive, except for a brief guitar solo. Particular instead is the conclusive Push Come To Shove, a piano ballad entirely focused on Tyler's vocal skills, who, as usual, does not disappoint and proves to be a versatile and capable vocalist, definitely the strong point of this album.

In summary, the album shows few strongly positive moments, but it's not a fall from style; I would consider it instead a work that didn't quite succeed, also and especially due to the absence, as already mentioned, of two historic components of the band.