Nine Lives

Marking Aerosmith’s return to Columbia after a phenomenal three-album run for Geffen, Nine Lives again proves the band’s taste for reinvention. David Shirley assumes the producer’s chair formerly occupied by Bruce Fairbairn, and he, along with songwriters Glen Ballard (Alanis Morrissette, Goo Goo Dolls, No Doubt) and Marti Frederiksen (Sheryl Crow, P!nk), helps guide the album towards the hard and heavy sounds of modern alternative rock. “Nine Lives,” “Something’s Gotta Give,” “The Farm,” and “Crash” bear the influence of Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots more than the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, Aerosmith’s old standbys. The album was originally titled Vindaloo and featured Hindu-derived cover art, but the Indian theme survives mostly in the form of the hard rock raga of “Taste of India.” Despite the band’s newfound alt-rock riff mongering, “Ain’t That a Bitch,” “Hole In My Soul” and “Kiss Your Past Good-bye” are three of the band’s gutsiest ballads to date. And even as “Pink” delves into a new groove, “Falling In Love (Is Hard On the Knees)” reiterates everything we love about the old Aerosmith.