Aerosmith compilations don't get much worse

Classic Aerosmith: The Universal Masters Collection. A compilation of songs covering Aerosmith's Geffen years.



Aerosmith is one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time - no questions asked. Not surprisingly, the band has released a number of hits compilations over the years, and there are even a few that never made it to American shores. Among these compilations is the Universal Masters Collection one (The Universal Masters Collection is a series of hits compilations from various artists (kind of like the twentieth century masters collection only not quite that crappy.)) Read on for my review of this set.



PROS:

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A COMPILATION COVERING UNDERRATED TUNES FROM THE GEFFEN YEARS (and I don't know why you would be), THIS SET IS FOR YOU. Really, that's about the only good thing I can say about this set. There are a lot of tracks and some rarities, but nothing worth jumping up and down about.



CONS:

THIS SET GOES FOR QUANTITY, NOT QUALITY. These ARE good songs, but aren't compilations supposed to have HITS on them!? How could they leave off Dude (Looks Like A Lady) and The Other Side, two of the most popular songs of all from the Geffen years? Why does the set overemphasize Done With Mirrors, the Geffen album with NO HITS, which is generally considered the WEAKEST effort from this era? If you're new to the band, just get a career-spanning domestic collection. This set isn't worth buying unless you're a completist who absolutely must have every Aerosmith thing ever released.



OVERALL:

Pass this piece of junk by. Either get a hits compilation that's worth a damn, or get all the albums. But DO NOT buy this. The Universal Masters Collection is the import equivalent of the Twentieth Century Masters collection, so if that much-rumored Twentieth Century Masters Aerosmith compilation is released in America, expect something even crappier. Avoid this set at all costs. The only reason it gets two stars instead of one is because it's Aerosmith, and the actual MUSIC is good.

AeroFan

I think that although this album dosen't have the great hits like "Big Ones" this is a very strong album anyway. It has favorites by the band and songs that are great to listen to when you are sick of the other stuff. It is composed of mostly album fillers from Done With Mirrors to Get A Grip.Overall these are great songs if you are a hardcore Aerosmith fan, fairly new with Aerosmith, or if you are just tired of the other stuff.It's a fairly easy to track down import too. Don;'t listen to everything you hear, this is a good album!

Gems of the Geffen days

This is a collection of the Geffen days albums (1985-1993) that features some of the hits (only the best of them- Janie's Got A Gun, Amazing...) alongside with obscure tracks from those albums- amazing tracks- that makes this CD the defenitive collection from the Geffen days that shows both the familliar side and the less familliar side of Aerosmith. Songs like She's On Fire, The Movie, Monkey On My Backs are bonafide classics but would never made in onto Big Ones, that was more of a singles collection.

You can call it "Gems of the Geffen days" ("Gems" was a collection of songs from the early Columbia days (1972-1982) that weren't big hits but was farourite songs by the band members, and is much better from the Greatest Hits record)