Just Push Play

1	Beyond Beautiful 4:45
2	Just Push Play 3:51
3	Jaded 3:35
4	Fly Away from Here 5:01
5	Trip Hoppin' 4:27
6	Sunshine 3:37
7	Under My Skin 3:47
8	Luv Lies 4:26
9	Outta Your Head 3:22
10	Drop Dead Gorgeous 3:42
11	Light Inside 3:34
12	Avant Garden 4:52
13	[Untitled] 4:40
14	[CD-Rom Track]

Barnes & Noble

Back in the '70s, hard-charging Aerosmith managed to fuse brain and booty with a panache rarely seen this side of a mad scientist's lab. And while a lot of water -- and watery power ballads -- have passed under the bridge since then, the grizzled godfathers have leapt back into the fray with their most aggressive, nastiest-sounding disc in more than a decade. Dispensing with strings, frills, and all things reeking of sugar-and-spice, the bards of Boston kick out the jams with flair on this collection -- the first Aerosmith record to bear the production credit of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. The latter does a good job of showcasing his slashing guitar stylings, which pour forth on bluesy, boozy throwdowns like "Drop Dead Gorgeous" and the strutting "Outta Your Head." Cohorts Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer assert themselves mighty effectively on several complex (but not convoluted) rhythmic workouts, notably the hip-tickling "Trip Hoppin'" and "Avant Garden." As always, however, Tyler finds a way to steal the show. Whether shuffling knowingly through "Jaded" or waxing lascivious on cuts like "Under My Skin," Tyler plays the part of dedicated debaucher with the flair of a man who's lived it, but he balances that with a distanced cleverness worthy of a postmod guru. With 30 years of hard living and hard rocking under their belts, Aerosmith don't even need to work up a sweat in order to get fans on the good foot, but to their credit, they decided to get those fluids flowing big-time on this outing. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Give Aerosmith credit for not only realizing something was wrong after Nine Lives relatively flat-lined, but deciding to do something about it. Ditching the outside producers who initially liberated but eventually straitjacketed them, Steve Tyler and Joe Perry seized control of the boards, working with the assistance of Mark Hudson and Marti Frederiksen. (Forever the Stones fanatics, Tyler and Perry dubbed this crew the Boneyard Boys, just like how Mick-n-Keef are the Glimmer Twins.) So, this isn't really a full-fledged band affair and Hudson and Frederiksen's fingerprints are all over the place, but that doesn't matter since the end result is tighter, savvier, and better than anything since Pump. It's still far from perfect, however, since it suffers from a surfeit of memorable material, and the group members' steadfast refusal to act their age results in a couple of embarrassing slips into stodginess (the "f*ckin' A" chorus on the title track, a song improbably titled "Trip Hoppin'," or the ludicrous "Avant Garden"). These mean that the record doesn't come close to matching the twin comebacks of Permanent Vacation and Pump, but it's a sleek, classicist hard rock record that sounds good -- better than Aerosmith has sounded in nearly a decade, as a matter of fact, particularly when the group gets a hook as tuneful as that of "Jaded." Aerosmith sounds good enough on Just Push Play that it almost makes you forgive the Heavy Metal refugee on the front cover, a sexy robot illustration that looks far more out of date than the music sounds. Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone

Just Push Play has a rawer, edgier sound than anything Aerosmith have released since 1989's Pump. Gone is the glossy pop of 1997's Nine Lives, co-produced by Glen Ballard, and slick power ballads such as the Diane Warren-penned "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." In their place is a full-frontal guitar assault, bucketfuls of salacious attitude and the enduring Aerosmith mixture of wry turns of phrase paired with insinuating, combustible melodies. Tom Moon