REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Day: November 19, 2023

AEROSMITH – Rock In A Hard Place

The Aerosmith that no one talks about. The only Aero album not to have Joe Perry playing, also Brad Whitford left during this recording as well. So, a new guitar partnership was given a baptism of fire on this album.

This is not as bad as everyone makes out to be. In fact, it sounds about as Aerosmith as you could get. There are some killer tunes on this Aero disc. Opener Jailbait is a superb tune and is my favourite on the record. This has all the swagger and groove you would expect from the band, and Jimmy Crespo shows he’s no slouch either. Bolivian Ragamuffin has a killer sleazy groove with guitar to match. Tyler is just spitting out the lyrics in time to the beat, which sounds like a rap. The title track is the other song that really does it for me. Another monster sleazy riff and groove, and Tyler is so in his element here.

There is lots to enjoy here, don’t be put off by the naysayers.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

T.REX – Electric Warrior

Let’s go back to the beginning of the 70’s. Glam was starting to take a hold of the musical landscape and Marc Bolan and T. Rex were at the forefront of that. The first thing I purchased was the Ride A White Swan single, as that’s all my pocket money could afford at the time. It was two and half minutes of pure joy that just waved its way into my brain. Bolan was a genius at writing a hit single, but he seems to struggle with the album format as there was always some filler on all of his albums.

This is the only thing I now own of Marc’s recordings, which I find strange knowing how much I loved his music, but that’s life I guess. The biggest song on here and maybe of his entire career is Bang A Gong ( Get It On). Yet another perfect piece of musical history that you still hear everywhere today. That guitar still draws you in after all this time. Jeepster is the other big song from this record. It’s just a simple rock n’ roll riff hidden away with percussion and a great lyric.

Happy days, and if it was eleven year-old me reviewing this then I would probably give it 100/10, but cynical aged old me can only give it a…

7/10 from the Grooveman.