CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Their knack for the basic song and small interest in guitar-hero costume drama always made them hard rock that deserved the name, not to mention an Amercian band. Still, with almost a decade of bad records collective and solo behind them, there was no reason to expect a thing from this touching reunion.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
DEPARTMENTS
AEROSMITH “Done With Mirrors” (Geffen)
Their knack for the basic song and small interest in guitar-hero costume drama always made them hard rock that deserved the name, not to mention an Amercian band. Still, with almost a decade of bad records collective and solo behind them, there was no reason to expect a thing from this touching reunion. And against all odds the old farts light one up: if you can stand the crunch, you’ll find more get-up-and-go on the first side than on any dozen random neogarage EPs.
B +
RUBEN BLADES Y SEIS DEL SOLAR “Escenas” (Elektra)
From loud syndrums to choked-up harmonies to generalized lyric, the Linda Ronstadt duet points up the risk Blades runs of falling into a modernist version of salsa’s romantic overstatement. But the risk has a payback—whether he’s synthing up la melodia or cataloguing international freedom fighters, his ability to skip along the shores of schlock without ruining his best pair of shoes helps distinguish him from middlebrow popularizers. It might even be what makes “The Song Of The End Of The World” a gleeful blowout rather than some stupid satire.
A-