4 / 10
Shamelessness is not always a virtue. For newcomers to the barbarous world of hard rock, here is an object lesson in aimlessness and avarice. Aerosmith are without doubt one of the world's finest rock acts, pumping out slabs of brilliant bombast with alarming regularity. Even left-field luminaries like Royal Trux hold them in high regard, but this feeble attempt at rock theatrics will do little to further their cause.
'A Little South Of Sanity' is a two-CD live set culled from their 1997-98 'Nine Lives' tour and the 'Get A Grip' tour of 1993-94, and includes inferior versions of global smashes like 'Dude (Looks Like A Lady)' and 'Love In An Elevator'. Recorded in faceless enormodomes, then airbrushed into abstraction, this is a sanitised slice of rock veriti and a less than adequate tribute to the 25-year "pilgrimage of rock'n'roll" singer Steven Tyler gushes about in the press blurb.
If this is a "big thanks to the faithful who've allowed us to rock their worlds", then it isn't a particularly heartfelt one. A little south of sanity, perhaps, but two miles west of entertaining.
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