CD: Aerosmith - Music From Another Dimension

Aerosmith’s reign as kings of the power ballad seems to be over. Their latest single is such syrupy tosh you can hardly believe it's them. But it is just a single, right. What of the rest? Songwriting collaborator Marti Frederiksen says the album's also full of "rockers". He was part responsible for the rather nice “Jaded” a few jears back, and has also written with Def Leppard and Motley Crue. So surely there's plenty of the melodic pop-rock they do so well?

Unfortunately not. It gets off to a bad start with a silly voiceover that tells you to surrender your emotion. But if only the album had some to offer any of its own. Track after track sounds like a band who were probably only in the same room as long as it took to record a song. They also shun all influences other than their own. That may be no great crime, but some of the songs here are practically covers of old hits. Of the two standout tracks one is the tasteful ballad “Tell Me", but “Out Go the Lights” is virtually “Rag Doll”. “Legendary Child” plunders “Walk This Way”. I misread track eight, “Street Jesus” as Sweet Jesus, which summed up how I felt.

You wonder why the Toxic Twins bother. Tyler is a successful professional celeb and Perry’s solo stuff, at its most bluesy, can be pretty good. That there’s a bevy of hired hands on every song is a sure sign their hearts weren’t in this. Age is no excuse: other wrinkly rockers are doing fine. In fact, if you thought you might like this, you’d do much better with the terrific new Kiss CD, Monster. Aerosmith’s Music from Another Dimension, however, is best left where it came from.