Permanent Vacation

In the months leading up to Permanent Vacation, all five members of Aerosmith completed drug rehabilitation and returned to the music with renewed fire and focus, and the result defines the term “comeback album.” Working with producer Bruce Fairbairn, Aerosmith honed in on everything that made the band great to begin with, but with a whole new sense of purpose. The drums were bigger, the choruses catchier, and the band hungrier than it had been since 1976. “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” served as the perfect re-introduction; over the most ingratiating hook of their career, Aerosmith poked fun at their hair metal inheritors even as they bested their junior competitors at their own game. “Angel” defined the power ballad for the late ‘80s, while “Permanent Vacation,” “Girl Keeps Coming Apart,” and “Rag Doll” presented a whole new fusion of stadium rock, radio pop, and heavy metal. Even as they made new inroads to pop success, the old Aerosmith was also revived; “Heart’s Done Time” might be the band’s meanest riff since “Back In the Saddle,” while the sneering shuffle of “St. John” returns to the sinister blues of its earliest years.