Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology

Album Review

The Geffen hits were already summarized on Big Ones, so the 2001 collection Young Lust takes the next step, providing an "anthology," which apparently means that it delves deeper than those hits, providing two discs of latter-day Aerosmith, including album tracks, concert favorites, rarities, non-LP B-sides, and cuts only available on compilations. A better idea in theory than in practice, since Young Lust is typical of collections of its time in that it simultaneously contains too much music and not enough. Too much because these 34 songs simply constitute a lot of material, especially because there are a few album cuts that aren't particularly distinctive, plus live material at the end that feels extraneous. Not enough because certain hits aren't here in the hit versions: the acoustic version of "Livin' on the Edge," the orchestral version of "Amazing," a live "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)" (not to mention the live performances of Columbia classics "Dream On" and "Sweet Emotion"). That said, this still fulfills its goals pretty nicely, offering an in-depth summary of Aerosmith's comeback, which indeed wasn't limited to just the hits; cuts like "Hangman Jury," "Monkey on My Back," "Blind Man," and especially the non-LP "Deuces Are Wild" are proof that the group was revitalized during this time, only starting to run out of steam around 1993's Get a Grip. Much of the best of this time is available here, but the collection feels a little off, probably because it is so much material in such a concentrated burst, which is not only a little tiring, but the density brings the weaknesses to the forefront in a way such tight albums as Pump couldn't; but it still does offer a lot, even if it doesn't have all that it should.