Aerosmith - Pump

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerosmith.
Aerosmith.
Aero.
Smith.

What to say about Aerosmith? I’m that confident I used to own this album. I’m not saying
that I’m ashamed of owning it, but I don’t own it anymore and my tastes definitely
progressed from this point on. So that says something. But I guess more interestingly is
that the entire music scene was about to get more exciting from this point on in the 90s.
This album feels a bit like the last gasp of the 70s classic rock bands (put through a pop
filter). We were waiting for something. What that was, we didn’t know at this point. But
Grunge was on the horizon (the seeds were already about for those who knew where to
look), but it hadn’t quite broken through to the mainstream.

There are two songs that stand out on the album now. Love in an Elevator. I probably
thought it was cool and risqué when I was in my late teens. Not so much now. Still, it’s got
a cool chorus.

Janie’s Got A Gun is the other. This was probably the start of bands singing about stuff
other than love etc (or maybe it was just me realising that they did). Janie’s Got a Gun is
quite clearly a good song and it’s really about child abuse and incest and the protagonist
taking revenge. Quite a confronting topic for a pop song. A similar topic is explored by
Pearl Jam with Jeremy only a few years later. I’m surprised by how well it holds up - I doubt
I’ve listened to it since the mid-90s.

The rest of the album is largely forgettable. And that’s just me being polite.