In case you don’t know, Aerosmith are a heavy rock band from Boston, in the United States. Before I get to the review of this album, it’s worth giving a bit of context.

Aerosmith were one of the biggest bands on the planet during the 1970s but a growing substance dependence had started to blight their output (and live performances) by the late Seventies. Whereas early albums such as Toys in the attic’ (1975) and Rocks’ (1976) were hugely successful (and are regarded as amongst the best ever rock albums), their next four albums (though not bad) were not nearly as tight or vibrant.

By the mid Eighties, the band had started to straighten themselves out, after stints in rehab, and 1987 saw the release of an album that was to kick start a new era of success for the band. The album in question was called Permanent Vacation’.

Permanent Vacation is, I feel, a really joyous record. The title includes the word vacation and it sounds as if Aerosmith had packed away their troubles and were intent on having fun in the recording studio. It also has a very polished production, something that has come to epitomise all of their record releases from this point on. Bruce Fairbairn was responsible for production and Desmond Child and Jim Vallance were drafted in to co-write some of the songs. It also includes their interpretation of the Beatles song, I’m down’.

The tracks that people are most likely to be familiar with are Rag Doll, Dude (looks like a lady), Angel, and Permanent Vacation. Rag Doll is my personal favourite on the album and one of my favourite all-time Aerosmith songs. It’s a song to dance to or (if you’re not near a dance floor) to tap your feet and sing along to. The song itself is a about young lust, as the opening lyrics indicate. Rag doll, living in a movie / hot tramp, Daddy’s little cutie / So fine, they’ll never see ya / Leavin’ by the back door, man’.

Dude (Looks like a lady) is about a glam woman who turns out to be a man. It is meant to have been influenced by the fact that Motley Crue had a stint supporting Aerosmith and their lead singer said dude’ a lot and looked a bit like a woman!

Angel, then, is the big ballad on the album and is consummately smooth and a real tear-jerker. The chorus is You’re my angel, come and save me today’ which sums what it’s about very concisely. The lyrics in the verses are great, like this one:
Don’t know what I’m going to do / about this feeling inside / yes, it’s true / loneliness took me for a ride / without your love / I’m  nothing but a beggar / without your love, a dog without a bone’. You can imagine all those lighters being waved as this one’s sung!

Permanent Vacation is the next song after Angel and brings the pace back up splendidly and reintroduces a lighter feel. It’s a feel-good song and the same statement applies to this whole album.

I’ve focused on the four best known tracks from this album. However, there are some other hidden gems. Heart’s done time’ introduces the album with the sound of whale song. Hangman jury is great. Magic touch is fantastic as well. The one slight let down is that the album finishes with its two weakest tracks. The Beatles were a great band but I’m not sure that I’m down’ is one of their better tracks. And The movie’ is an instrumental, which isn’t really what Aerosmith are about for me, at least.

However, this is definitely one of Aerosmith’s greatest albums. It’s perhaps not quite as good as Rocks’ or Pump’ but any fan of guitar-based rock n’roll should have this album in their collection. I’m just so glad that they managed to garb this opportunity to get back into the limelight, as even in the 21st century, Aerosmith are one of the very best bands on the planet.

Track Listing:
1. Heart’s done time
2. Magic touch
3. Rag doll
4. Simoriah
5. Dude (looks like a lady)
6. St. John
7. Hangman Jury
8. Girl keeps coming apart
9. Angel
10. Permanent vacation
11. I’m down
12. The movie