Pandora's Box

AMG Review of Pandora's Box

Greg Prato
All Music Guide

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. Since the set was released by Columbia, none of their material from the mid-'80s through the early-'90s is featured (Done With Mirrors, Permanent Vacation, and Pump). But the '70s was when this legendary band was at their most raw and rocking best, and Pandora's Box is a superb overview of the group's work from their first self-titled album up until 1982's Rock in a Hard Place. Also included is solo material from Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, as well as an early track from Steven Tyler when he fronted a band called Chain Reaction in the '60s. The hits will attract the casual admirer ("Dream On," "Walk This Way," "Sweet Emotion," etc.), while the more obscure selections will surely please the longtime fan ("Rattlesnake Shake," "On the Road Again," a great demo of "Movin' Out," live versions of "Write Me a Letter," "I Wanna Know Why," etc.). Aerosmith was always an album-oriented band, and such selections as "No Surprize," "Three Mile Smile," "Lick and a Promise," "No More No More," and "Seasons of Wither" often outshine the hits. By touching all the bases, Pandora's Box is an excellent package.