My Amazom Reviews: Aerosmith "Get a Grip"

A Grand Slammer but no Babe Ruth
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Of the four albums Aerosmith recorded for the Geffen label, only "Done With Mirrors" was weaker than "Get a Grip." Even in Tyler's biography, he notes that "Get a Grip" was being pushed into by the suits who wanted more hits, and that's what the band delivered here in triplicate. By hits, Geffen meant "Power Ballads," and "Crazy,", Amazing" and "Crying" pulverized radio and MTV, driving the album into a heavy sales pattern. However, if you were wondering where the rock was, you may have been scratching your head.

"Get a Grip" is 80's/90's AOR by committee, with only two songs not featuring outside songwriters. That also tells you that the songs all have big, impactive hooks but little stick. The ballads are drenched with strings, the boogie-rock punctuated with horns. The only unpredictable moment is when Joe Perry takes to the microphone on "Walk On Down," serving to remind everyone why Steven Tyler is the usual lead singer. Especially when Tyler follows Perry with the playful "Shut Up and Dance."

Overall, "Get a Grip" is not a bad album, just an average one. The band had settled into formula for success and milked it (I always wondered if the cover wasn't a pun to that effect) for all they could. It was so slick and commercial that the band got a Grammy for "Living on The Edge." (The second of four they've earned.) The follow-up, "Nine Lives," is a better album.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Counting Crows "Underwater Sunshine"

A Day At The Beach
4 Out Of 5 Stars


If you were jamming on your 'summer vacation' and you just happened to be the Counting Crows, the "Underwater Sunshine" is allegedly what you'd come up with. Your favorite oddity songs played in a loose and jocular manner, nothing too slow to kill the buzz, but nothing too rocking or you'll tire yourself out. "Underwater Sunshine" is a cool groove of a jam session, loaded up with songs as familiar as Rod Stewart or Pure Prairie League to band fan-club types like Fairport Convention and Teenage Fanclub.

This eclectic if steady album is a pleasure. Adam Duritz sings like nothing much matters, with a confidence that belies his usual nervous sounding voice. "Jumping Jesus" pops along like a song from "Discovering the Satellites" and was originally by "Sordid Humor" (whom I never heard of), but the CC's sound almost like the Grateful Dead at times here. Especially on Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere." Another surprise is just how Southern Cali The Faces' "Ooh La La" sounds...so much so that new California sunshiners Dawes' song "All My Failures" sounds like it came from the same pen.

That is just one of the many reasons "Underwater Sunshine" has had a spot on my CD deck for a few weeks now. Adam and the Crows may have chosen these songs from a multitude of stylistic sources, but under their microphones, they all sound tailor-made for Counting Crows. There's nothing profound here, just a solid album of enjoyable music rendered lovingly.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Journey "Frontiers"

Looking for the Wild Frontiers
3 Out Of 5 Stars

When Journey released the original "Frontiers" in 1983, they were on a hot streak. Their live album had cemented their rep as one of the country's top arena acts, and "Escape" had been their biggest hit to date. With "Frontiers," they jettisoned all pretenses to being a prog-rock group and finally owned up to the fact that Steve Perry had effectively turned them into a mighty powerful singles unit, capable of delivering radio ready fodder with an ease that 80's radio lapped up like so much diet soda.

The album kicked off with the band's rocking-est top 40 entry yet, "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)." With the energetic new wavish keyboards and Perry's propulsive wail, it was a straightforward pop song with a metallic hook. Then came the juggernaut; the ballad "Faithfully" built on the success of the previous album's "Open Arms," with ex-Baby Jonathan Cain dominating the song's love-lorn hook and tale of families on the rock and roll road. Add "After The Fall" and "Send Her My Love," and you get four top forty singles out of ten tracks. Not bad for a group that began as a sci-fi prog outfit.

However, when the band tries to steer clear of the formula, there's trouble on the Frontier. Neil Schon is given some 'rockers' to unleash his guitar on, but many of these qualify as pure filler. Perry is not a very convincing rock-roarer, so when he tries to sound surly on "Chain Reaction" or "Back Talk," he's totally out of his universe. His dominance of the band as a soul crooner and pure singer minus affectations are when Journey are at their best.

This is also why the bonus tracks hit home so well. "Only The Young" was a single from the movie "Vision Quest," "Only Solutions" from the original "Tron" and "Ask The Lonely" from the John Travolta/Olivia Newton John pairing, "Two of a Kind." Each of these sounded like an insta-hit and pulled down substantial airplay at the time. Added to "Frontiers" as extras. they highlight the band's strengths and again emphasize the point of how Journey had pushed themselves into a position of that of a well-honed producer of hits.