After nearly getting off the ground with
Get Your Wings
,
Aerosmith
finally perfected their mix of
Stonesy
raunch and
Zeppelin-esque
riffing with their third album,
Toys in the Attic
. The success of the album derives from a combination of an increased sense of songwriting skills and purpose. Not only does
Joe Perry
turn out indelible riffs like
"Walk This Way,"
"Toys in the Attic,"
and
"Sweet Emotion,"
but
Steven Tyler
has fully embraced sleaziness as his artistic muse. Taking his cue from the old dirty
blues
"Big Ten Inch Record,"
Tyler
writes with a gleeful impishness about sex throughout
, whether it's the teenage heavy petting of
the promiscuous
or the double-entendres of
"Uncle Salty"
"Adam's Apple."
The rest of
, led by
Perry
's dirty, exaggerated riffing, provide an appropriately greasy backing. Before
, no other
hard rock
band sounded like this. Sure,
cribbed heavily from the records of
the Rolling Stones
New York Dolls
, and
Led Zeppelin
, but they didn't have any of the menace of their influences, nor any of their mystique.
was a gritty, street-wise
band who played their
as blooze and were in it for a good time;
crystallizes that attitude. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine