Aerosmith - Music From Another Dimension! Review

Being A fan of Aerosmith for a few years now, I was extremely enthusiastic when it was announced that after all the debating as to whether or not they would record together again that they were indeed entering the studio to record their first album of original material in 11 years.

I for one am possibly one of the few who thoroughly enjoyed “Just Push Play” as an album. All this excitement however soon began to diminish when I began listening to “Music From Another Dimension!”

The album opens with “Luv XXX” and whilst some of Aerosmith’s trademark sound is there, it’s lacking soul and that raw blues emotion that makes Aerosmith sound so great is missing, as if the album is being recorded simply for the sake of it rather than to serve a purpose. 

I can only hope that given the albums 15 tracks it has to get better, but it doesn’t, its 15 tracks of what I can only describe as a band without new inspiration going through the motions and constructing an album of half-baked ideas (a lot of which sound awfully close to previous Aerosmith songs).

The Album’s first single “Legendary Child” is the first track on the album that is actually not as poorly thought out as the albums preceding tracks. It does however have a feel of it being an older track, it seems to remind me of previous singles and doesn’t give me that sense of excitement that Aerosmith once did, but it is considerably better than anything on the album thus far.

“What Could Have Been Love” is the next track on the album, and this thus far is the albums exceptional track, its true to Aerosmith’s style, the emotion and blues feel is there, and my hope for the album is somewhat rekindled by these 3 minutes and 44 seconds, and these are kept burning with “Street Jesus”, a fast paced track that’s reminiscent of the bands early days.

“Can’t Stop Lovin’ You” soon dashes my re-ignited belief in this album in an instant, there’s an almost country feel to the track, and it throws the already disjointed album into more disarray. This should have been left off and used as a track for a solo venture or should have been a solo track for Carrie Underwood with Steven as a guest rather than the arrangement it is in.

“Lover Alot” is written for radio play and may well be a radio hit due to the catchy style in which the lyrics are written and the bounce of the song itself and in this song we find another good track on the album.

The next few songs on the album become lost within each other and it’s hard to notice anything that makes any of the tracks stand alone, apart from Joe Perry handling lead vocals on “Freedom Fighter” (which features Johnny Depp on backing vocals, with which he doesn’t do too bad a job) and “Something”, Joe Perry it would seem could stand to learn a thing or two from Depp’s backing vocals, as it just becomes a monotonous drone without any sort of degree of musical inclination.

“Another Last Goodbye” closes the album, and an album that has been such a let-down as this can only end like this, with a poorly written ballad. If Aerosmith are going to continue writing music after this I hope they do it with conviction rather than for the sake of it.

As an Aerosmith fan I hope they work on what made this album poor, as a critic, I can only hope they step back and think about what they are doing before they do it.