MattA75's Full Review: Nine Lives [PA] by Aerosmith
It must have been hard to be Aerosmith back in 1996 and 97. First and foremost, they had to somehow follow up the biggest commercially successful album of their career, the mediocre Get a Grip, which took off mostly thanks to the three videos featuring at the time blonde girl of the moment Alicia Silverstone (what the hell ever happened to her anyway?).
Not only that, but new allegations of drug use dogged the band thanks to their manager Tim Collins, who was fired by the band for selling his stories to the Boston Herald. The band denied that anyone was back on drugs, but it was clear there was a tension within the band, a tension that seems to still exist today (stories persist that the band wouldn't be around if lead singer Steven Tyler hadn't agreed last year to make a so called 'blues' album that returned the band to their roots).
The band worked with multiple songwriters on this record, and the diversity shows. More importantly though, they brought in Kevin "Caveman" Shirley to produce the record, a man who is known for giving bands back their "raw" sound, hence the nickname.
That raw sound is evident on the title track, which leads off the album. This is easily one of the best driving rockers the band has written since their mid 80s comeback, with guitarists Brad Whitford and Joe Perry sounding like they've been let out of a cage, and Tyler sounding positively excellent.
That is followed by the hook heavy and horn drenched Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees), a song that is far superior to the better known Aerosmith song with a lot of horns, the highly overrated Dude Looks Like a Lady.
Unfortunately, the band kills the momentum with Hole in My Soul, a predictable power ballad with little oomph and lacking any real passion whatsoever.
They immediately redeem themselves though with Taste of India, one of the more creative splashes the band has had in recent years. Written with the at the time hot songwriter, Glen Ballard, India not only manages to succeed where the band has had trouble (fleshing out their sound in new ways), but it also has a good amount of rock edge to it as well.
My favorite song on the record is definitely The Farm, a ballsy blues rocker that definitely benefitted from Shirley's production. The song seems to point fingers at Collins ("There's a cockroach in my coffee, a needle in my arm..."), and it has one of the best Joe Perry riffs this side of Walk This Way. Unfortunately, the song that follows, Crash, is a lame attempt from the band to do punk.
And contrary to what some people might think, I actually kind of dig Pink. First of all, a song like this that gets 13 year old girls singing about a certain body part is hilarious in it's own right. But I also really like Tyler's harmonica playing, and it's a decent enough pop song as well musically.
For the most part, I think Nine Lives is a great album. In fact, if you take out the weak links and insert the 2 or 3 good songs on the follow up, Just Push Play, you would have an album that would rival Pump for title of "best post 70s Aerosmith album."
While I would pick up Rocks, Toys in the Attic and Pump before this album, this might be next in line for me. Those of you who know how I've come to feel about Tyler in recent years then should know how much I must really like this disc.
This was my final entry into Aerocat's Aerosmith write-off. Links to the participants and their reviews can be found here:http://aerowriteoff.bravepages.com/index.html
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