Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Consumer Guide Album

Aerosmith: Draw the Line [Columbia, 1977]
The problem with the multiple-riff hi-test jobs that made Rocks rock was that when time came to follow up, the band was out of gas. The best of the three good ones here is a mold-breaking Joe-Perry-alone boogie that probably reflects the usual "internal tensions." Perry goes nowhere near the mold-breaking "Kings and Queens," synthesized medieval pomp-rock (cf. Styx, Rush) that proves beyond doubt that they won't bite "The Hand That Feeds." We knew it all along, guys. B-