Permanent Vacation

Permanent Vacation opens with the weird wail of "Heart's Done Time," echoing "Sweet Emotion," one of Aerosmith's finest moments, and from there the fresh-from-rehab band proceeds to reclaim the classic-rock throne. Debate rages eternal over whether the album's lynchpin is the staccato strut of "Rag Doll" or the self-aware riffage of "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)"; both are defining moments of '80s Aerosmith. Perfectly punchy, "I'm Down" is not the first time they covered The Beatles, and someone snuck a steel drum into the party-starting title track.