At the end of the 1970's, Columbia Records released Aerosmith's Greatest Hits. At the time of its release, just about everyone thought their best days were behind them, thus the release of a greatest hits album. Although the album had all the hits, it didn't quite tell the whole story. The beauty of Aerosmith's '70s albums was that the album tracks were just as strong as their singles, especially on Toys In The Attic and Rocks. So with Aerosmith at the beginning of their near impossible comeback of the late '80s with Geffen Records, Columbia hopped on the money train and released Gems, a stellar collection of their best album tracks.

Although this collection was released strictly for profit, it showed fans that came during the late '80s that they were more than the band that did "Dream On" and "Walk This Way." Most of the tracks here are top notch, with 8 of the collection's 12 cuts coming from their first four classic albums. These tracks are the strongest ones here, with the tracks "Rats In The Cellar", "Train Kept A Rollin", and "Mama Kin" still getting regular airplay on classic rock radio. The remaining cuts from these albums, "Nobody's Fault", "Lick And A Promise", "Round And Round", and "Adam's Apple" are also excellent tracks. The tracks "Critical Mass", "No Surprize", and "Jailbait", are all strong tracks which are salvaged from their albums after Rocks, which were progressively weaker with each release as dissention and hard living affected the band's creativity. Also featured here is the excellent studio version of "Chip Away The Stone", which was originally only available as a live track from their Live Bootleg album. This is a strong collection of their lesser known album tracks. It definitely blows away everything they recorded after Pump. If you like the tracks on Gems, I'd highly recommend Rocks and Toys In The Attic, their best albums, and some of the best hard rock recorded in the '70s.

Gems is Aerosmiths greatest hits part 2, it has everything that was left off of part one but should have really been on there. This is kinda point less cause every Aerosmith fan already owns these songs in one form or another, but I am a die hard so I had to have this. from beginning to end this is jam packed full of Aerosmith Classics 'Rats In The Cellar' 'Train Kept A Rollin' ' Lick And A Promice' and many more, this is nothing but the best of Americas, no make that the worlds greatest rock and roll band of all time! If you are a casual Aerosmith fan you might just want to get O Yeah! Ultamate Aerosmith Hits, but if you are a die hard like my self you must own Gems!

With "Gems", Aerosmith gives us some more of their backlog of hits that were screaming "don't forget about us!" during the bands commercial explosiveness of the late 80's and beyond.
The songs found on this particular album are perhaps the most metal/strongest to date. Powerful, gritty and raw, yet still smoothe enough to keep up with the growling, signature screeching that frontman Steven Tyler screeches throughout the record.

"Lick and a Promise" and "Chip away the stone" are great lil rock gems that aren't to fast or to slow, and get the message across. The most prolific rock songs to me coming from this album are "No Surprize" which have an awesome sounding crescendo when Tyler speaks to us "Midnight lady,Situation fetal,Vaccinate your a** with your phonograph needle.." and WHAM in comes the signature guitar lick from Perry that I never tire of hearing! "Critical Mass" and "Nobodies Fault" are also great raw rollicking tunes as well. Gems is aptly named, as we can relish some of the bands earlier sometimes blasting rockers coupled with a Blues feel on the slower tracks.

When paired with the better-known "Greatest Hits", "Gems" is the second half on an excellent primer to pre-comeback Aerosmith. However, much like any compilation package, this is only supposed to begin the journey. The ideal end result for the label is that you purchase more old Aerosmith albums. And, honestly, that's what you should do. In the interests of space (the album only clocks in at 53 minutes, average length by 1988 standards), a number of classic Aerosmith songs have been left off - there is no "Big Ten-Inch Record", "Seasons Of Wither", or "No More, No More" on here. But "Gems" is what it is - a jumping-off point for the Aerosmith novice, and a boarding pass for an amazing journey. Buy this.

This album was released in 1988 by Aerosmith's old label (now their current label again) to cash in on their big "Permanent Vacation" comeback. It was intended to be sort of a "Greatest Hits Volume 2", and there are a handful of songs on here that definitely deserves such status - "Mama Kin", "Train Kept A-Rollin'", "Lord of The Thighs", and the rare single "Chip Away The Stone" are bona fide Aerosmith classics. There are a few more second-tier classics here, like "Jailbait", "No Surprize" and "Rats In The Cellar" which are also quite worthy of inclusion. As for the rest of them, it's baffling what criteria they used in picking the songs. There are so many great Aerosmith songs which inexplicably didn't make the cut, and a bunch that are here that only provoke the question "Why?" Where's "Toys In The Attic"? "Big Ten Inch Record"? "No More, No More"? "Lightning Strikes"? "Sick As A Dog"? How do ho-hum songs like "Critical Mass" or "Adam's Apple" get on here over any of those? Two obscure songs here that I really like are "Nobody's Fault" and "Round And Round", two of the heaviest songs they've ever done, but those two still should've been shelved in favor of some of the more well-known tunes. Some have described this as "Aerosmith's Hard Rock Greatest Hits" album since some of the songs are heavier than their more well-known hits, but then again songs like "Mama Kin", "Lord of the Thighs", "Lick And A Promise" and "Critical Mass" hardly fall into that category. They're pretty straightforward commerical sounding 70's rock. A perplexing compilation, really only worthy for the otherwise hard-to-get "Chip Away The Stone" (it is also available on the pricey "Pandora's Box"). I would personally pass on this and get all of Aerosmith's first seven albums. You won't go wrong.