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Pump

by Aerosmith

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Building on the success of the more pop-oriented Permanent Vacation, this 1989 release banished any doubts that Aerosmith's unlikely late-'80s comeback was a fluke of nature--or merely the product of shrewd record company calculations. That Aerosmith could produce a pair of albums to rival Toys in the Attic and Rocks after a decade-and-change of decay and despair seemed all but unnatural. While Vacation's other key players (producer Bruce Fairbairn, outside songwriters Jim Vallance and Desmond Child) are still part of the mix, it's the band's familiar, tough swagger that powers this collection from the get-go. And while the Vallance-Child collaborations ("The Other Side" and the power ballad "What It Takes," respectively) were successful, it's telling that the album's twin pop-rock evergreens, "Love in an Elevator" and "Janie's Got a Gun," originated entirely within the band; the old dogs had not only learned a few new tricks, they seemed bent on tutoring their would-be trainers in the bargain. Pump is the high point of Aerosmith's improbable second chapter--and one of their best albums, period. --Jerry McCulley