Ruts

By the time Aerosmith's sixth studio release was issued, 1979's Night in the Ruts, guitarist Joe Perry had finally left the band after years of drug-fueled bickering with singer Steven Tyler (forming the Joe Perry Project by year's end). Most of the tracks were completed before Perry's departure, with replacement Jimmy Crespo filling the few empty spaces. And while the band looks back upon this period as hazy and frustrating, Night in the Ruts is a surprisingly coherent and inspired album. Although it's not up to par with such classics as Toys in the Attic or Rocks (although it could have been if the band weren't in such a state of turmoil at the time), it was definitely leaner and more focused than their last studio release, Draw the Line.

UK four CD box. This is a 74 track set featuring pretty much all the band recorded during their time with Virgin Records. Includes the hit singles "Babylon's Burning" (#7), "Something That I Said" (#29), "Staring At The Rude Boys" (#22) and "West One (Sine On Me)" (#43). Disc 1 has the #16 charting debut LP The Crack bolstered by six non LP bonus tracks. Disc 2 features the Top 30 Grin N Bear It odds n sods LP which now comes with two bonus tracks plus previously unreleased BBC Radio 1 Kid Jensen session that is something of a "Holy Grail" amongst Punk collectors. The third disc comes with three John Peel sessions plus a lively nine track BBC In Concert show from 1979. The fourth disc is a warts n all show from The Marquee in July 1979, never before officially released and capturing the band at their "in yer face" confrontational best. Packaged in a clam shell box with a 20 page booklet featuring detailed liner notes by Roland Link who has just published the bands biography Love In Vain.

Aerosmith's 1991 three-CD box set Pandora's Box has just about everything you could possibly want: hits, demos, rarities, live material, key album tracks, and a booklet packed with classic photos, a bio, and the bandmembers' remembrances of all the tracks…

With 100 hit tracks spanning five discs, this budget set, which has a decided British lean, has no real discernible theme, but features plenty of rock and pop classics like Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street," Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman," Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle," Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat," and the Band's "The Weight," as well as British hits from the Buzzcocks, the Ruts, and the Waterboys.