Aerosmith: Steven Tyler (vocals, harmoncia, keyboards); Joe Perry (guitar, background vocals); Brad Whitford (guitar); Tom Hamilton (bass, background vocals); Joey Kramer (drums).
Additional personnel: Catherine Epps (spoken vocals); John Webster (keyboards); Bob Dowd (background vocals).
The Margarita Horns: Tom Keenlyside, Ian Putz, Henry Christian, Bruce Fairbairn.
Recorded at Little Mountain Studios, Vancouver, Canada.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Following the triumphant comeback success of PERMANENT VACATION, Aerosmith's next album, PUMP, proved to be an opportunity for the band to cut back on the army of songwriters that had lent its hand on the prior album. Most of the material on 1989's PUMP was generated from within the band, and Jim Vallance and Desmond Child are the album's only outside collaborators.
Sober and fully functional, Aerosmith used the momentum of success to churn out songs that tapped into the band's libidinous instincts, like "Young Lust" and "Love in an Elevator." The band also took a chance by including a Steven Tyler/Tom Hamilton hit about incest ("Janie's Got a Gun"), a semi-autobiographical rant about the evils of drug use ("Monkey on My Back"), and a bluegrass/Indian instrumental ("Dulcimer Stomp"). Although the brassy "The Other Side" and the power-ballad "What it Takes" became top-30 hits, it was with lesser-known songs like the Stones-esque pop nugget "My Girl" that Aerosmith showed it was still capable of being America's top rock & roll band.
What the critics say...
Q (4/01, p.92) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Aerosmith stay clean and conquer the world. Cover shot of 2 trucks copulating still indicative of silly, sleazy sounds within. Pregnant with hits: 'Love In An Elevator', 'Janie's Got A Gun', 'The Other Side'."
