"Three Mile Smile," "Bone to Bone (Coney Island Whitefish Boy)" & "Mia"

Here's one of the bright spots of this album. It's not as flashy as "No Surprize," but it as an understated, dirty funk to it that works for me. It wasn't going to go down as one of Aerosmith's greatest tracks (lyrically it appears to be a disjointed rant about the late-70's energy crisis) and I doubt it would even be considered one of their top 100 fan-favourite songs, but I like it's spiky, getalong riff. It's one of the points on this album where the guitars really work like they should. No, it's not "Last Child" or anything, but on this disc, it'll do.



Along those lines is also "Bone to Bone (Coney Island Whitefish Boy)" which showcases that pared-down street level rock Aerosmith could fall back on in those days. Like "Three Mile Smile," I actually enjoy this one because it has some energy and charm, and like "Chiquita" or "Cheese Cake" it's at least halfway to a really good tune. It's just that all through the 9 tracks, the band failed to seal the deal with anything inspired.



In a few reviews I've read for this album, this ballad is unfairly referred to as a knock-off or re-do of "Dream On." I don't think that's fair, given nearly every Aerosmith album has a ballad on it, and they all sound at least a few degrees apart, including this one. That's not to say it's any good. It lacks the grandeur of, the build of "Dream On," settling for a rather chilling minor key fade out, letting this album limp into the darkness rather than leave a real impression like "Home Tonight" or "Seasons of Wither."

Ultimately, it's hard to defend this album. The best I can say is, "It doesn't totally suck," but I only get to say that with the benefit of hindsight and knowing how things turn out. It would've been hard to justify recommending this album at the time, though. Knowing the story doesn't end here makes me kind of forgiving. There's nothing essential to the story of Aerosmith, nothing to counteract the temptation just to say "From 1978 to 1986 they recorded a string of poor albums" even though that is not exactly the case. Simplicity overwhelms the somewhat more complicated truth. With a little TLC all these songs could have been better, but this band simply did not have that extra care to give.