Aerosmith doing rhythm and blues standards; now this might be interesting. Before listening to the album I reckoned they could go two ways; either make it a down to earth, intimate and ‘small’ album or they could opt for the ‘huge’ Aerosmith-sound. As soon as they kick off with Bo Diddly’s “Roadrunner” it’s clear they’ve chosen the latter. At first I was disappointed as I am curious how these arena rockers would sound in a basic set up. But every time I give this record a spin in my cd-player it grows on me. This is arena blues. And I think I like it. One thing is absolutely clear: the band had fun recording these songs.

Many of the ‘older’ bands release albums with recordings of the tunes that got them into music. Most of these records sound bland and obligatory. Aerosmith may have given these songs a larger than life sound, they did it with love and respect. Guitarist Joe Perry does some lead vocals on this album as well and they aren’t half bad at all. But when he’s backed up by Tracy Bonham, I can’t help thinking they should trade places. There’s also a new self penned track called “The Grind” and it fits perfectly. This is Aerosmith’s best record since… euh, well since a while anyway.