There have been a number of revolutionizing rock n’ roll bands to come from my hometown of Boston, but Aerosmith is one of the most long-lived ones yet. To put it in perspective, Beantown’s bad boys were selling out stadiums prior to the band Boston or New Kids On the Block and even my conception. All these years later, Aerosmith is still a staple in the music industry, evidenced by their induction into The Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame this Spring. Coinciding with that highly monumental event is the release of their latest album Just Push Play.
We last heard from Aerosmith on the soundtrack to the 1998 summer blockbuster Armageddon, where they crooned the catchy ‘Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing.’ This mega-hit was just what the band needed after the catastrophic reviews for Nine Lives, highly criticized as the album that officially sold out the band to the likes of their mainstream pop-rock contemporaries. Reeling from the harsh feedback, they released the double-CD live album, A Little South of Sanity, which began to quell fears for Aerosmith enthusiasts, offering an indication that the band was going to get back in the saddle again.
Unfortunately, Just Push Play bears a prominent likeness to the redundant and formulaic template taken by Nine Lives. In fact, the new CD feels more a sequel to the last, rather than a different project. However, where Nine Lives succeeded and Just Push Play stops dead is due to the former having a handful of songs that, even if they were too poppy for true fans, were long memorable afterwards (the blues-rock feel of ‘Pink’ and the spicy ‘Taste of India’). Apart from ‘Jaded,’ the new CD’s first single, there is a scarcity of songs on Just Push Play that are radio-worthy.
Just Push Play has a very bitter edge to it that runs continuously through the entire album. This is certainly to the album’s credit; it’s not that a fluid story is stitched together, per se, but there is a continuous flow that brings the CD full circle. Each song can stand on its own, however feebly, but as a whole, the album magnifies the essential subject. Just Push Play centers on the theme of getting jilted, screwed-over, and all the other disappointments that bands get a kick out of singing about.
The album’s first cut, ‘Beyond Beautiful,’ sounds just like ‘Walk on Water,’ a new song that was added to the band’s most successful CD yet, the greatest-hits Big Ones. But instead of the energetic use of guitars and drums to propel ‘Beyond Beautiful,’ more attention is paid to Steven Tyler’s vocals and lyrics. Here, Tyler’s mouth stretches to new widths as he hollers at the top of his vocal range about how much a kick in the head it is after an individual ends a relationship and sees their ex with someone new. ‘You gave up the love you got/Now that is that/She loves me now/She loves you not/And that’s the way it’s at.’ Tyler is no romantic going with likable lines instead of outstanding lyrics.
The title song follows next, and it too has some flavor to it, but after a while goes sour. The most appealing thing about the song is the Limp Bizkit-like rock-rap intro that kicks the song off. This could have given way to a modern-day ‘Walk This Way,’ but the syncopated stylings are abandoned for the heavy instrumentation that soon enters. In retrospect, this seems reasonable, for as the song goes on, there’s hardly any body and verse to the song. Rather, the simplistic hook is repeated over and over. To spice it up, they throw in the ‘s’ word here and there, just to make sure you’re listening as the song drags on. Indeed we are, but it is due to the expletive recurring as much as it does that this song will not make the radio airwaves. If it had been more censored, perhaps a bleep or two would appease the FCC, but its appearance time and again may result in little popularity, or an edited version (which is never equal to the original).
Following the next song, ‘Jaded,’ previously mentioned as the most exceptional number on the disc, is the power-ballad ‘Fly Away from Here.’ Momentary flashbacks to ‘Hole In My Soul’ will come to mind, but disregard them, for as it progresses one will find it is truly a marvelous song. The lyrics and melody blend together nicely, making it the second of two consecutive keepers from this CD. Much to the listener’s chagrin, the song ends too abruptly, something that a song like this should not do. Maybe a slow fade to silence, or a vamp to another song, (although I would’ve liked a big drum crash, myself), but instead it’s a sudden cease-fire of all instruments. Nonetheless, ‘Fly Away from Here’ might be the album’s only follow-up single, since it gets stuck in your head, and keeps you humming.
A song that’s called ‘Trip Hoppin’,’ especially from Aerosmith, sounds like it’d be a bouncy, bluesy outing like their previous hit, ‘Pink.’ Even though it has a vivacity to it, the title is absolutely nonsensical and the music far too superfluous to stand out among the rest.
And so it goes for the rest of the album, with the songs ‘Under My Skin,’ ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ and ‘Sunshine.’ The closer, ‘Avant Garden,’ is the third and final opus that’s worthy of listening to. Again, the title has no meaning, but much like ‘Fly Away from Here,’ it is a tuneful ditty that might be a goody. A power ballad is a common, but suitable way, to end a CD, and makes one again consider it as a whole piece. As such, Just Push Play has only a few moments where the Aerosmith we all love comes through, but overall, is too mild and stock to be a job well done.
While I will be an Aerosmith fan until the day I die, Just Push Play is definitely not their strongest work. As much as I wanted to adore this album, I couldn’t find in it the band I first loved. More often than not, with Just Push Play I wanted to just push stop.
