Album: Toys In The Attic
Artist: Aerosmith
Release Date: April 8, 1975
Genre: Hard Blues Rock
Length: 0:37:08
Label: Columbia
Producer: Jack Douglas
Rolling Stone Top 500 (2012): #229
Rolling Stone Top 500 (2020): N/A
1,001 Album Book: Yes
"You stand in the front just a shaking your ass"...
One of rock's most successful groups, Aerosmith's Toys In The Attic is the third studio album by the group and is recognized as the band's most successful in sales, receiving platinum certification eight times. The album was marketed by singles in "Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way", peaking at #36 and #10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, respectively.
Headlining the album is the title track "Toys In The Attic", which is the perfect song to bring out the best in the hard rock/blues style Aerosmith has grown to be so widely known. The amount of guitars rushing along in the beginning throws the listener right into the frantic feel of the group, followed up by Steven Tyler's vocal melody synching up right along with Joe Perry's guitar licks is an impressive bout of musicianship. The guitar solos throughout by Perry are so particularly and flawless placed into the mix that it never feels like a solo section, but just another section the band can show off their skills to the world.
The second song, "Uncle Salty" is a track that focuses more on the blues aspect of the group and also puts the group's songwriting talents at the forefront. A song about a little girl growing up in a facility that prostitutes and abuses girls by a man named Uncle Salty. The track closes with a nearly minute and a half fade out while the band echoes "Ooh, it's a sunny day outside my window" and the instruments all play a mysteriously optimistic, yet defeated, repeated beat and melody, alluding to the abusive nature of the content in the lyrics.
Some other tracks that show off a blues style of playing are "Big Ten Inch Record", and "Round and Round". While "Big Ten Inch Record" is a seemingly pretty generic, but good blues song, "Round and Round" is far different. Adopting some blues ideas, the heaviness and grittiness across the track is what separates it from the other blues songs on the record. The most notable change in style of song is the effects on Tyler's voice. In every other track on the record, Tyler's voice is loud and proud, whereas this song is hidden behind the grit from the bass and drums. This isn't a bad thing however it's nice to get a change of pace between the other songs on the album.
Along with "Toys In The Attic", the fourth track "Walk This Way" is featured in the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Even though the album version isn't the exact version featured on this list (the Run-D.M.C with Aerosmith is the version) it's still arguably the most popular song on the record. "Walk This Way" opens with one of the most iconic drum grooves only to follow it up with an iconic guitar riff in itself. Tyler's powerful vocal style is shown throughout this track, even if it isn't through his hard rock belts, the amount of strength put behind every lyric so quickly is one of the reasons he has one of the most recognizable voices in music history.
The sixth song on the album is another one of the groups most famous songs in "Sweet Emotion". The song opens with a mysterious bass melody, almost impossible to predict where it'll go, along with the sound of a talk box (a device used to change the sound of an instrument with the voice) and the slight shaking of what turns out to be sugar packets. All three of these ideas continue to build steadily until the igniting cymbal crash feeds into the first chorus. The song is split up in a magnificent way where the verses are followed by a nostalgic instrumental break whose melodies appear throughout the entire track but closes with a minute-long instrument explosion. The power across each instrument from the driving bass, to the snare's heavy drum pattern, to the face melting lead guitar solo, all with the talk box and shaker ideas still playing a background role in the song, this track is easily one of the most impressive rock songs to come out of this era.
Sadly the album does take a dip in quality after "Sweet Emotion", mostly in the final song "You See Me Crying". Instrumentation-wise, this song could easily be the most sonically impressive, but the way Tyler sings in it is reminiscent of older Aerosmith, where the decades of drug abuse and parties caught up to Tyler's vocal chords. The orchestra in the song provides a different dynamic for a rock band of this caliber, it just doesn't serve them as well as it could have as it almost feels too overwhelming, especially taking the ballad style of the song into account.
This album is a strong recommendation for anyone that likes blues rock. The iconic songs on Toys In The Attic like "Toys In The Attic", "Walk This Way", and "Sweet Emotion" are powerful enough songs in themselves to give this record a deserving listen, but the filler songs are also good songs. The Steven Tyler and Joe Perry duo is such a dynamic pairing of two people; the way they play together is almost like they are connected at the hip, which is one of the reasons you can clearly hear the creativity and chemistry between them bleed out onto the entire Toys In The Attic record...
Favorite Songs: "Sweet Emotion", "Walk This Way", "Toys In The Attic"
Least Favorite Songs: "You See Me Crying"
Production Quality:
Mix = 7.5/10 (Great mix focused more on Tyler and Perry than the entire group)
Innovation = 8/10 (Interesting mix of hard rock and blues with ideas and sounds that are now popular in music still to this day)
Songwriting Quality:
Arrangement = 9.5/10 (Songs are all arranged in a perfect way although the album tracks could be moved around to perfect the order)
Lyricism = 8.5/10 (Original story-telling lyrics)
Instrumentation Quality:
Vocal Timbre = 8.5/10 (Fantastically unique voice but with some poor sections in "Round And Round" and "You See Me Crying")
Instrumental Timbre = 10/10 (Distinctive instrument playing with notorious riffs, grooves and solos)
Group Chemistry = 10/10
Overall Likability:
My Personal Rating = 7.5/10 (Final three tracks don't really do it for me)
Overall Rating: 8.45/10
Any confusion on how the rating is weighted/calculated, please look at my "About" page.
Remember this is all my opinion! Let me know if you agree, disagree or have any comments!