Album Title: Draw the Line
Artist: Aerosmith
Year: 1977
Running Time: 35m 17s

Track listing: 1 Draw The Line; 2 I Wanna Know Why; 3 Critical Mass; 4 Get It Off; 5 Bright Light Fright; 6 Kings and Queens; 7 The Hand that Feeds; 8 Sight for Sore Eyes; 9 Milk Cow Blues

Disappointingly, Aerosmith have come up with a bit of a dud in response to the preceeding classic, “Rocks”. There is a laborious feel to several tracks and only a couple throb with the Aerosmith groove that was so prominent before.

The title track is a bristling rocker that is probably the only career highlight to eminate from this album and ‘I Wanna Know Why’ is a bluesy, brass and piano-infested jaunt. The composition on this track is top notch with two marvellous interludes, one a happy piano excursion and the other a strangled Brad Whitford solo.

Elsewhere, ‘Crtitcal Mass’ certainly rises above mediocrity with it’s bass and drum vertebrae and sparkling piano and harmonica breaks and ‘Kings and Queens’ is a progressive trip back in time, with the band experimenting with several tempo changes and the addition of banjo, mandolin and eccentric keyboard effects. If only it was a couple of minutes shorter…

‘The Hand that Feeds’ ascends into interesting territory too for it’s rousing chorus and throbbing mid-section but the strained vocals are a little bit grating. ‘Sight for Sore Eyes’ is a reasonable attempt to recapture the ‘Walk this Way’ groove but it suffers by comparison.

The rest of the album is probably for fans only. ‘Get it Up’ is a bit of a drunken mess but has its moments, ‘Milk Cow Blues’ is an interesting cover of the 1934 Kokomo Arnold track and ‘Bright Light Fright’ is a ‘written in five minutes’ rocker that features guitarist, Joe Perry, on the lead vocals for the first time.

Considering the stunning consistency on “Rocks”, it is amazing to see the stunning inconsistency on this disc. “Draw the Line” is by no means a disaster, but there is little on the album that will excite anyone outside of hardcore