Steven Tyler’s solo debut, recorded in Nashville and leaning heavily on radio-friendly country music, is refreshingly distinct from the stadium hard rock he’s been making for almost half a century as Aerosmith’s frontman. It starts very promisingly: the self-doubt expressed on the stripped-back opener My Own Worst Enemy is genuinely affecting, while Love Is Your Name boasts an irrepressibly upbeat chorus. I Make My Own Sunshine, meanwhile, might resemble a backwoods take on Catatonia’s Road Rage, yet it still possesses a certain charm. But the quality control suffers elsewhere: Only Heaven is teeth-grindingly formulaic AOR, while Red, White & You’s flag-waving lyrics sound like a winning board of US patriotism cliche bingo (“American girls!” “The fourth of July!” “Good ol’ boys!”). And a 68-year-old man calling a song Gypsy Girl in 2016 is wearyingly anachronistic.
