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Rocks

by

Aerosmith

 
Rocks
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Avg: 4.0 (175 ratings)

  • Date Released: May 1, 1976
  • Genre: Rock/Pop
  • Style: Pop
  • Label: Columbia
  • Copyright: (P) 1976 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

Aerosmith's most densely packed, tightly coiled and cocksure blast

  • We Say...

    Nowhere on their fourth album does it feel like Aerosmith are reaching or grandstanding. That’s unusual enough for any band’s most acclaimed work; it’s more so from one that helped invent the power ballad three years earlier with "Dream On" and would become household names via MTV due to some of the windiest song-doctor assists of their era. Instead, Rocks, from 1976, is the sound of five guys at a peak of assurance. And not just because Steven Tyler honed his howling frontman persona yet further: see him rhyme "Tallahassee" with "sweet sassafrassy" on the funky "Last Child," or the way he attacks the thundering opener, "Back in the Saddle" even harder than his bandmates. It’s because the songs are packed so tight that they take multiple listens to unravel fully, while at the same time they're as immediate as your first shot of Jack Daniels. The real star is lead guitarist Joe Perry, who fluently handles everything from the heavy riffs of "Rats in the Cellar" to the solo of "Last Child," which presents him as a psychedelic colorist with a billowing sense of rhythm. But the album’s most propulsive moment is "Sick as a Dog": choppy riffs, loose groove, and a winking, arcing, falsetto "Pleeeeeaaaaasssse" that stands with any rock of the decade.

  • They Say...

    Few albums have been so appropriately named as Aerosmith's 1976 classic Rocks. Despite hard drug use escalating among bandmembers, Aerosmith produced a superb follow-up to their masterwork Toys in the Attic, nearly topping it in the process. Many Aero fans will point to Toys as the band's quintessential album (it contained two radio/concert standards after all, "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion"), but out of all their albums, Rocks did the best job of capturing Aerosmith at their most raw and rocking. Like its predecessor, a pair of songs have become their most renowned -- the menacing, hard rock, cowboy-stomper "Back in the Saddle," as well as the downright viscous funk groove of "Last Child." Again, even the lesser-known tracks prove essential to the makeup of the album, such as the stimulated "Rats in the Cellar" (a response of sorts to "Toys in the Attic"), the Stonesy "Combination," and the forgotten riff-rocker "Get the Lead Out." Also included is the apocalyptic "Nobody's Fault," the up-and-coming rock star tale of "Lick and a Promise," and the album-closing ballad "Home Tonight." With Rocks, Aerosmith appeared to be indestructible.

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