Aerosmith album rock ‘n’ roll, naturally

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Editor’s Note: In Sound Advice, the first Thursday of every month, veteran NEWS entertainment writer Dale McGarrigle reviews new rock, pop, alternative, country, folk or blues albums. Different NEWS writers contribute reviews from other musical genres.

“Just Push Play” (Columbia) – Aerosmith

Some things are just constant. Snow in Maine lasts six-plus months of the year. The other checkout line always moves faster. And Steve Tyler remains a lascivious Peter Pan.

With Tyler’s distinctive wail, there’s no mistaking an Aerosmith song when it assaults your ears (do you hear that, Chris Robinson?). And while no song on the new release is earmarked for the next “greatest hits” package (“Trip Hoppin'” is close), it has that familiar, comfortable, take-you-back-to-high-school feel. You can always trust the world’s oldest adolescents not to clutter up an album with politics or navel gazing, just full-bore rock ‘n’ roll.

“Just Push Play” marks the first time Tyler and Joe Perry (aided by Mark Hudson and Marti Frederiksen) have helped produce an Aerosmith album. The four also wrote the majority of the 12 cuts. No wonder it feels so natural. Who else knows Aerosmith better?

There’s not many surprises on “Just Push Play,” their first studio album since 1997’s “Nine Lives.” There’s the obligatory power ballad (“Fly Away From Here”), some horns here, some strings there. Tyler tries his hand at Jamaican patois on the title cut.

But it still sounds organic, not contrived. That’s because it’s served up with big, fat slices of guitar from Perry and Brad Whitford, on a solid foundation laid down by Tom Hamilton on bass and Joey Kramer on drums.

At this point in their lengthy careers, the quintet that is Aerosmith has cleaned up its act and become a rock ‘n’ roll survivor. But at least they can still walk that way, as “Just Push Play” well illustrates.

“Everyday” (RCA) – Dave Matthews Band

Please, please, PLEASE don’t judge the Dave Matthews Band’s new album by the single “I Did It.” If you like it, that’s fine, but if you’re anything like me, it left you thinking, “Did what?” My collegiate love for Dave and the boys started waning shortly after graduation, and this song almost ended the affair entirely. Then I heard the rest of the album.

The thrill is back.

This decidedly un-Dave-Matthews-Bandlike release is sleeker than the band’s usual acoustic jammy fare. It’s a grownup album that will appeal to grownup listeners. But it’s more than that. Matthews told Rolling Stone this month that “Everyday” saved his life – from depression, from drinking, from himself.

It wasn’t quite as life-changing for me, but “Everyday” hits some high points that DMB hasn’t reached since “Crash.”

To get to the good stuff, skip “I Did It,” go straight to “When the World Ends,” a sexy little ditty that Matthews just purrs, or “The Space Between,” a ballad that alternates between gentle and foreboding.

“Everyday” is short and sweet – nothing on it lasts longer than five minutes. If you love DMB’s extended violin jams, this may horrify you. If you don’t, the album’s streamlined style may draw you in – even if you can’t stand “I Did It.” (By Kristen Andresen)

“Cydonia” (MCA) – The Orb

As an amiable ex-roadie for Killing Joke, (Dr.) Alex Patterson was an unlikely candidate to become an icon to British clubbers. Yet, in the early ’90s, Patterson was being hailed as the inventor of ambient house music, his lazily looping hymns a permanent fixture in club chill-out rooms. He graced dozens of magazine covers, spawned dozens of imitators, and probably single-handedly tripled the British herbal cigarette business.

But then, after the surreal commercial and critical success of “Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld” and “U.F.Orb,” The Orb went a little pear-shaped.

Patterson had already displayed a penchant for being difficult, if only lightheartedly so, when he released a 39-minute single from “U.F.Orb,” “Blue Room.” But if that puzzled some, follow-up albums to “U.F.Orb” left most completely bewildered, with their subtle textures and complex rhythms. Often vaporous in their appeal, both “Pomme Fritz” and “Orbus Terrarum” were tricky to say the least.

But the signs have been auspicious recently, with 1997’s “Orblivion” being a far more open affair.

And now, “Cydonia,” Patterson’s love song to the Red Planet, sees The Orb continue to invite people back inside.

“Cydonia” is pure Orb, and good Orb. By finally achieving a compromise between his intellectually complex musical ideas and his pop sensibilities, Patterson has produced a twitching tapestry of an album.

The sultriness of dub-struck Arabic pop music sashays alongside creeping hypno-ballads. Soothing and searing in equal measure, it tears your lungs out, then offers you an aspirin.

And it’s got a beat you can dance to. (By Adam Corrigan)

“Thunder & Roses” (Arista) – Pam Tillis

On her latest album, Tillis explores the idea of baby boomers who still believe in the possibilities of love despite having been burned in the past. It’s a timely message in these days of disposable relationships.

It’s a topic the twice-divorced, 43-year-old can speak to, and yet, on the release, she remains worldwise yet optimistic, not bitter. Songs like “Jagged Hearts,” “I Smile” and the single “Please” offer up a message of hope to listeners who find themselves in a similar situation.

That’s not to say that she doesn’t recognize the pitfalls of couplehood. “It Isn’t Just Raining” and the title cuts are both about unions on the slide.

Although she’s one of Nashville’s more prolific songwriters, there’s sadly only one song by the discriminating Tillis on the album, the memorable “Off White.” Instead, she found songs by others that she could make her own. A team of producers, mainly Billy Joe Walker Jr., handle duties behind the glass, allowing Tillis to put her all into singing. And that she does.

It’s been three years since a new studio album by Tillis, an eternity in album-a-year Nashville, but as always, she’s made it worth the wait. “Thunder & Roses” is a treat for the ears and the mind.