Give
Aerosmith
credit for not only realizing something was wrong after
Nine Lives
relatively flat-lined, but deciding to do something about it. Ditching the outside producers who initially liberated but eventually straitjacketed them,
Steve Tyler
and
Joe Perry
seized control of the boards, working with the assistance of
Mark Hudson
Marti Frederiksen
. (Forever the
Stones
fanatics,
Tyler
Perry
dubbed this crew the Boneyard Boys, just like how
Mick
-n-
Keef
are the Glimmer Twins.) So, this isn't really a full-fledged band affair and
Hudson
Frederiksen
's fingerprints are all over the place, but that doesn't matter since the end result is tighter, savvier, and better than anything since
Pump
. It's still far from perfect, however, since it suffers from a dearth of memorable material, and the group members' steadfast refusal to act their age results in a couple of embarrassing slips into stodginess (the "f*ckin' A" chorus on the title track, a song improbably titled
"Trip Hoppin',"
or the ludicrous
"Avant Garden"
). These mean that the record doesn't come close to matching the twin comebacks of
Permanent Vacation
, but it's a sleek, classicist
hard rock
record that sounds good -- better than
has sounded in nearly a decade, as a matter of fact, particularly when the group gets a hook as tuneful as that of
"Jaded."
sounds good enough on
Just Push Play
that it almost makes you forgive the
Heavy Metal
refugee on the front cover, a sexy robot illustration that looks far more out of date than the music sounds. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine