By By Billy Florio

By looking at their discography, one would think that Aerosmith have released more greatest hits compilations than studio albums. This could possibly be seen simply as an attempt from the band, in a time of creative decline, to try and live off their glory years. But in reality, since many of these greatest hits albums post-1987 have the same sub-par music on it, its doubtful that its their glory years they want to relive.

1994’s Big Ones is no exception. It’s intention is to be a greatest hits album that combines the music from their 1987 comeback Permanent Vacation, with 1989’s Pump and 1992’s Get A Grip. These were the three albums that revived Aerosmith’s career; and while bringing them back into the mainstream, they also signified a downturn in the quality of their output.

Permanent Vacation had signified the first time the band used professional writers to fix their music. Pump and Get A Grip had shown a compromised Aerosmith, not the blues rockers of the past, but now a centralized MTV-friendly version that acted like over-the-top Mick Jagger imitators than anything else.

The band remolded themselves into a sleazy hair metal act; and since this was the ’80s, a time when Don Johnson’s album did better than Frank Zappa’s, their success rose to heights it had previously never seen.

Aside from that, the good thing Big Ones did was it combined all of the band’s hits onto one album, so if you liked “Eat The Rich,” you didn’t have to buy Get A Grip and thus own some of the worst music the band’s ever made.

Also, the album contains “Deuces Are Wild” from The Beavis And Butthead Experience album and two new songs: the pretty bad “Blind Man” and the-easily-the-best-song-on-the-album, “Walk On Water.”

’80s glam, power ballads and Desmond Child aside, if you liked the Aerosmith of this era, then Big Ones is for you, but if you prefer an Aerosmith that was more than just the band that did the Wayne’s World theme, then forget this album and get your hands on Toys In The Attic.