Track Listing

1. Nine Lives
2. Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)
3. Hole in My Soul
4. Taste of India
5. Full Circle
6. Something's Gotta Give
7. Ain't That a Bitch
8. Farm
9. Crash
10. Kiss Your Past Good-Bye
11. Pink
12. Attitude Adjustment
13. Fallen Angels

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14583 in Music
• Released on: 1997-03-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Album Details
Aerosmith's 12th Album from 1997 was the First Marking their "re-debut" with Sony/Columbia Music, the Label Where They Started their Recording Career in 1972. They Moved to Geffen Records in 1979 and Sony/Columbia Lured them Back in 1996. This Special Edition Includes Two Tracks Not Found on the Us Equivalent: "Falling Off" and their First Number One Pop Single, the Movie Theme from the Hit Motion Picture "Armageddon", "i Don't Wanna Miss a Thing", which was Written by Diane Warren.

Amazon.com
Nominated for a 1998 Grammy award for Best Rock Album and featuring the single, "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)," nominated for a Best Rock Performance, Nine Lives is Aerosmith's first album in their lucrative re-signing to Columbia Records. Together over 25 years, the Boston band has always been known for their gritty sex anthems, hard-buckling rhythms, and bic-flicking power ballads. Not nearly as flat-out rock as previous releases, Pump or Get A Grip, Nine Lives experiments with a multitude of instruments, including hammered dulcimer, Indian fiddle, and Chapman stick. This Noah's Ark approach allows the band to experiment within its rock parameters with the appropriately titled "A Taste of India." They haven't sworn off the ballads ("Fallen Angels" is what you'd expect) and they still riff like the Aerosmith of old ("Crash"). --Rob O'Connor

Customer Reviews

Aerosmith suck-punches back into the scene . . .
Just when the music climate started to become a conglomerate of intangible tunes of gloom, Aersomith breezes back to Earth, sucker-punching the world with their newest release, Nine Lives. It's been four long years since the public has heard some new noise from the Boston Bad Boys. The wait may have been a long one, but the rewarding end result has been sweet.

Nine Lives begins it's musical journey with a meow (literally). The heavy-hitting, ***-kicking, Aerosmith-licking title track sets the stage for what's left to come. The first single, Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees), a rocking number jammed packed with plenty of amusing, tongue-in-cheek lip, follows. Things slow down a pace with Hole In My Soul, an aesthetically written ballad with a haunting, splendid melody, hearkening to the more classical-sounding Aero ballads of yesteryear.

Next up at the plate is the rhythm-grooving tune, Taste of India (and Mr. Tyler ain't talking about the country, folks). With it's funky, driving beat and hypnotic lyrics, this one proves to be a unique gem. Full Circle, a swing ballad-type, is brimming with clever sing-along lyrics that you can easily sing to while sitting around a campfire, chugging a brew. A cool-sounding drum beat opens Something's Gotta Give, a hard-rocking tune that jams ("Does the noise in my head bother you?"). Ain't That A Bitch starts out slow and mellow, kicking into a straight ahead upbeat song, full of clever hooks ("Love is like the right dress on the wrong girl").

A bit of experimenting on the next two songs, The Farm and Crash, end in pleasing results. The Farm starts out with bits of dialog from The Wizard of Oz, providing a whimsical touch, telling a tale of jest (and it's not Kansas). A bit different, but easily likable. Crash is a furious-sounding, fast-paced rocker with an awesome harmonica and drum solo that totally jams.

Two more ballads, Kiss Your Past Good-bye and Fallen Angels, add to the collection of ballads on this album. Kiss Your Past Good-bye has some well-penned prose, making it one of the most meaningful songs on the album. The song starts with simple vocals and guitar, and the melody builds with euphonious keyboards and some beautiful guitar work. Fallen Angels, the finale, sounds much like the ballads from Get A Grip, with the exception of the instrumentation at the beginning and end of the song. Tin-sounding drums, tambourines, a flute, and some other horns supply a vastly cultural sound to the song. Lyrically, it's one of the deepest songs on the album, which makes up for a drawn-out ending that could have been a tad shorter.

Pink and Attitude Adjustment are sandwiched between the last two ballads, continuing the well-planned song placement on the album. Pink is extremely sexy, with it's playfully seductive lyrics. It has an almost country-rock flavor to it, peppered with some mean harmonics and acoustics, and complimented with a steady drum beat. Attitude Adjustment is an upbeat, fast-paced, in-your-face, guitar-laden rocker with inventive lyrics.

Not able to take Nine Lives out of my CD player, the wait seems well worth it. Nine Lives should not disappoint fans, old or new. The album flows from one song to the other, providing a nice mix between ballads and rockers. The lyrics are so cleverly penned: From the songs that go straight-for-the-heart, to the ones that go straight-to-the-groin, to the ones that make you chuckle, to the ones make you think. Musically, the band has never sounded better. You can hear tones of classic Aerosmith, mixed with the modern sound they have adopted in recent years.

All the same -- it's still Aerosmith. It's easy to see why the band has lived within the hearts of their fans. Aerosmith, after all of these years, can still rock your bootie off or touch your soul with their own brand of hard-hitting, funky-rhythm, blues-flavored music that's exciting, sexy, sincere, and full of balls. As an added bonus, for the computer-geek generation, there's a free Music Media game that can have even the most intelligent scratching their head with frustration.

Nine Lives will disappoint very few who still believe in the power of real rock n' roll. Nine lives and twenty-plus years later, the Boston Bad Boys can still kick the spunk out of the younger, trendier bands of today. Thank God for Aerosmith -- someone needs to show `em how it's really done.

Rockin' it as hard as usual
Aerosmith seems to be the infallible band. No matter what they try, it always ends up sounding good. This is shown by the absolutely incredible Nine Lives CD. Here's my song-by-song review:

Nine Lives 5/5 - Very catchy (and by very, I mean as catchy as a cold). The only thing that may have dropped the score here is the creepy cats meowing in the beginning. A little wierd.

Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees) 5/5 - This song gets two names. It is that incredible. I mean, this is hardcore Aerosmith at their best. Awesomely clever lyrics as well as a great beat.

Hole In My Soul 5/5 - Very beautiful ballad. Not quite up to bar with the haunting "Seasons Of Wither" or the breathtaking "What It Takes", but still very good.

Taste Of India 3/5 - Not as great as some of the other songs on this CD. Alright though. Only slightly memorable.

Full Circle 6/5 - Yes, that's a six out of five. This song kicks major arse. I listened to it on an average of four or five times a day back when I first got this CD. Still #1 on my top 25 list on iTunes.

Something's Gotta Give 4/5 - Pretty awesome song, but again, not as strong as others on the album. Some weird lyrics ("comic books are coming through"), but some cool ones too ("does the noise in my head bother you?").

Ain't That A Bitch 6/5 - Another six out of five. Absolutely unveleivable. Incredible song, to say the least. I mean, nothing but compliments here. Perfection. Actually, one minor complaint. This in the uncensored version of the CD, yet Tyler refrains from dropping the f-bomb at the beginning where it fits perfectly, and instead says "huh" in it's place. What is that about? Aerosmith never holds back with that stuff. Otherwise, perfect.

The Farm 4/5 - Pretty weird/cool/catchy song. I dig it.

Crash 5/5 - What is he saying? Yeah, the lyrics make zero sense, and some lines are dubbed over the ends of other lines, so it's like a crazy mishmash of nonsense. That works incredibly well here. #2 on my iTunes playlist, next to Full Circle.

Kiss Your Past Good-bye 3/5 - One of the weaker songs on the CD, but still good. Not as catchy or anything as some of the others.

Pink 4/5 - Not bad. Why does everyone think the lyrics to this song are dirty? I mean, they are, very much so, but these people have obviously never listened to much of the old Aerosmith.

Attitude Adjustment 4/5 - Pretty good song to start to wrap things up towards the end of the album. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, it's the last song on the album (see below).

Fallen Angels 0/5 - Complete and utter crap. Suckage to the max. Horrendous. This song is about honoring dead children, or something like that. COMPLETELY out of place in this album. I mean, the actual song itself is alright, but the lyrics are absolutely dreadful.

IMPORT TRACK: Falling Off 4/5 - Pretty cool song, featuring Joe Perry as the lead singer. I've always liked his voice. I mean, he's no Steven Tyler, but he works really well in this song, as well as the others he's in.

Summary: Awesome CD. Provides some of my favorite Aerosmith tunes, along with Just Push Play and their honorable older CDs, such as Rocks and Get Your Wings. Pick it up. You won't be sorry

By Far best Aerosmith
I am not normally a big aerosmith fan, but i bought the cd because of "falling in love..." and "Pink" and found out that every single song is amazing. This is their best CD every made and one of the best CD's ever made period. If you like good music at all and like rock music with awesome vocals, then this CD is a MUST!