Aerosmith
Toys in the Attic (1975)

review by: Mike Webb
Date: 2/7/03

The original Aerosmith was a boogie-woogie, hard R&B band. Everyone always said they were a rip off of the Rolling Stones, but that was only in the look. The music had much more to do with the Yardbirds and Isley Brothers than anything else. And when you consider that the Who were the purveyors of Maximum R&B, you've got some mighty fine influences to work from.

Toys In The Attic is not Aerosmith's best album. Rocks is, and it's a brutal assault of grinding & churning guitars and Steven Tyler's sexed-up lyrics - pure rock & roll. But Toys has a different feel. They still wanted you to be able to dance with your girlfriend when they put this thing together.

Three of the best songs are Tyler-Perry songs. The sped up cowboy riff of the title track is pure gold, while "No More, No More" has one of the best ever Joe Perry guitar solos. And "Walk This Way" is the musonification of nasty.

"Sweet Emotion" covers the teenage angst angle with its attitude laden "I pulled into town in a police car, your daddy said I took it just a little too far". And the hypnotic bass marimba riff is what distinguishes Tom Hamilton as the stoner center of the band.

The rest of the disc is a paean to older music styles, like the swing of "Big Ten Inch" and "Uncle Salty, and their second super power ballad "You See Me Crying".

Aerosmith has basically sucked since leaving Columbia Records the first time around. Somehow Steven Tyler picked up a bad pop sensibility after the drugs wore off, and Joe Perry completely forgot how to play guitar leads. Too bad. They were one of the pre-eminent American rock'n'roll bands, and it's too bad they didn't take Neil Young at his word.