Customer Reviews

The Best of Aerosmith: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection

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20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Aerosmith gives us pitifully few tunes by Aerosmith; the company then tries to pass this CD off on us as "The Best Of Aerosmith." Humph! That one won't get past me! Sure, what we do get is very high quality; but eleven or twelve tracks could never be enough to be called "The Best Of Aerosmith." What a disappointment!

"Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" really rocks and I always like this song! Aerosmith sounds strong and Steven Tyler sings this with all his might! "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" is a great number to start the track set; it's a solid Aerosmith hit and it sets the tone for the rest of what we do get. "Rag Doll" again features the band rockin' like the pros they still are; and Steven Tyler's voice never sounded better! The key modulations work very well and the electric guitars couldn't have been better, either.

"Love In An Elevator" features some fine harmonizing and the group does this up right. "Love In An Elevator" is an excellent rock song all these years later; it holds its own very well. "Janie's Got A Gun" is yet another huge Aerosmith hit with great drums and percussion.

"Livin' On The Edge" rocks really well with incredibly strong guitar work that few other rock bands could ever dream of matching; Steven Tyler sings this passionately, too. "Cryin'" is a love song type of rock ballad that leaves nothing to be desired--it's THAT good.

"Crazy" gets t my heart every time I hear it; this love rock song really works well and Steven Tyler sings this flawlessly. The CD ends with Aerosmith performing their classic hit, "Amazing." This tune tells the story of Steven's drug addiction and how there's hope for others just as there was still hope for him.

The liner notes don't give us tons of information but what we do get is OK. My main complaint about this album is that there's simply no way you can throw twelve tracks together and call them the "best" of Aerosmith. There's too much missing including many tracks from the Nine Lives album.

Music: 4 stars; Economic Value: 3 stars; Compilation relevance: 1 star

1994, at the end of Aerosmith's tenure with Geffen Records, the label issued a "best of" from the band's Geffen era, called "Big Ones". It was an excellent overview of Aerosmith's commercial and critical comeback years. Fast forward to Fall, 2007, when Universal issued an Aerosmith volume in its ongoing "20th Century Masters" series.

"20th Century Masters: The Best of Aerosmith" (12 tracks; 60 min.) presents a chronological overview of the band's best and biggest hits from 1987 through 1994. "Permanent Vacation" gets 3 songs; monster-albums "Pump" and "Get a Grib" each gets 4 songs, and "Deuces Are Wild" (from the Beavis & Butthead Experience movie soundtrack) rounds out the collection. Terrific songs, good collection as such, BUT....

If it strikes you as well that this is a virtual copy of "Big Ones", you are correct. Indeed, ALL TWELVE songs from this collection are on "Big Ones", which had 3 additional tracks (2 new songs and "Eat the Rich"). Given that both those collections sell for an identical $9.97 on Amazon and elsewhere, why in the world would anyone buy this 'new' collection?

The '20th Century Masters' series is at it again -- this time with Aerosmith, one of America's finest rock and roll bands. This disc, which was released in the 2006-2008 time frame, if I'm not mistaken, was an awful idea then, and it sure doesn't hold up well in 2010. What a disgraceful compilation.

This '20th Century Masters' disc covers Aerosmith's latter day comeback era on the Geffen Records label -- 1988-1995. This was a big time period for Aerosmith. They were MTV regulars; quite a remarkable comeback for a group that had just a few years earlier considered disbanding because of all of the drug/alcohol problems within the band.

I like the Columbia era better, I'll admit, but I've got nothing against the Geffen years, personally, and I certainly am not ranking this disc one star because of the music. I LOVE Aerosmith, and believe me, this is very painful to write this review.

But, the problem is, THIS HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE. There's two discs out on the market already, 'Big Ones,' which covers the Geffen years, and which contains EVERY song here, and 'O Yeah!: Ultimate Aerosmith Hits,' which also contains EVERY single song here too. The sad part about that is 'Big Ones' was released in 1994, nearly 13 years before this was released, and 'O Yeah,' was released in 2002, also predating this disc by about 3-4 years.

And, another complaint. WHY DOES ALMOST EVERY GEFFEN-ERA AEROSMITH COMPILATION OMIT 1985's 'DONE WITH MIRRORS'!?! Argh! That's probably my favorite album of the era, and 'Young Lust' and the import 'Universal Masters Collection' are the only two compilations that give it rightful recognition. How disappointing that Geffen and UMG always seem to ignore that album.

The only positive about this disc is the sound quality, which is, admittedly very good. I don't own this disc, nor will I ever buy it, but I have heard before, and it does have very good sound, although not much better than the 'O Yeah!' disc.

Overall, '20th Century Masters' and the Universal Music Group try to deprive you of your hard-earned dollar by trying to lure you into buying the same thing AGAIN and AGAIN. Aerosmith summed it up best themselves in the early '70s: "It's the same old story, it's the same old song, and dance."

Stay away from this album. If you want a strictly Geffen era record, go buy 'Big Ones,' or if you have the pocket change, seek out the import 'Universal Masters Collection' (which is better than 'Big Ones' by a comfortable mile). Or, if you want just a solid introduction to Aerosmith's legendary catalogue, just buy 'O Yeah!: Ultimate Aerosmith Hits,' or buy the studio albums and listen to Aerosmith that way (which is what I strongly recommend).

NOT RECOMMENDED.

this si a awesome cd. i love this album the best songs on this album are all of them. Aerosmith rocks

These 20th century masters pay tribute to the best selling artist of the last century. The only song by this group Aerosmith missing is Dream On. Overall, a satisfying listen counting down their early to mid 90s stuff. Only a couple tracks I wasn't already familiar with. I got it Wal Mart for like 7 bucks.

When it has came to comebacks back in the 80's, there were very few that actually delivered within the promises. The big hypes in music came from Tina Turner and her 1984 comeback album Private Dancer, and her smash What's Love Got To Do With It, and some other other acts really had delivered to even greater heights. Aerosmith proved to really be that big surprise in music. While the 80's in the beginning showed to be more about their drug-enduced bouts with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. But, with acts like Bon Jovi, Poison and others thriving in Hard Rock, Aerosmith made up for it, and returned to a whole new generation with their time on Geffen.

The 2007 20th Century Masters Millennium Collection: The Best Of Aerosmith, is a single disc reflection that shows their major success of Geffen during the 80's and early 90's. The collection includes 12 classic tracks including the smashes Dude (Looks Like A Lady), Crazy, the deep and haunting Janie's Got A Gun and Love In An Elevator. The songs could've been remastered a bit better than other collections, and doesn't include other hits from the bad boys of Boston like Walk This Way, which was sadly overshadowed from this album on their own, and especially as the comeback single collaboration with Run D.M.C., Livin' On The Edge, and I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing from Armageddon, or their standard smash Dream On.

All in all, 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best Of Aerosmith is a great buy for those on a budget shopping for hits albums, but it isn't as much of a definitive reflection like the other recent ones like O'Yeah Ultimate Aerosmith Hits from 2002. Nevertheless, it does a good job at reflecting through their comeback era, but could've had a bit more to dream on to.

Album Cover: B

Songs: B-

Price: C

Remastering: B-

Overall: C+