Permanent Vacation is the ninth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released by Geffen Records on August 25, 1987. The album marks the band's shift to a pop-metal sound that they would maintain up to 1993's Get A Grip.
Production recruited songwriters outside the band, who had written commercial hits for Bon Jovi, Heart and Starship. This came at the suggestion of executive John Kalodner. He also pushed the band to work with producer Bruce Fairbairn, who remained with them for another two albums. It was also the first Aerosmith album to be promoted by heavy music video airplay on MTV. Though Done with Mirrors was intended to mark Aerosmith's comeback, Permanent Vacation is often considered their true comeback, as it was the band's first truly popular album since their reunion. "Rag Doll", "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", and "Angel" became major hits (all three charted in the Top 20) and helped Permanent Vacation become the band's biggest success in a decade.
Permanent Vacation has sold over five million copies in the U.S. In the UK, it was the first Aerosmith album to attain both Silver (60,000 units sold) and Gold (100,000 units sold) certification by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving these in July 1989 and March 1990 respectively.
Contemporary reviews were mixed-to-positive. Deborah Frost of Rolling Stone wrote that Aerosmith had "made one of the dumbest moves of a checkered career. They've tried to make a hit record", recruiting "last year's hitmakers" and changing their usual themes and lyrics "in a desperate attempt to clean up their act for Eighties radio". She concedes that "even though none of the heavier songs ("Dude," "Heart's Done Time," "Girl Keeps Coming Apart") packs the hooks of Aerosmith's finest moments, the band has never sounded better or more charged." Robert Christgau graded the album a C+, saying Aerosmith were "running out of gas again already". On the other hand, Dave Reynolds from Metal Forces magazine called the album "a shit hot album and one I'm gonna play the hell out of".
In a retrospective assessment AllMusic wrote that "despite the mostly stellar songwriting, which makes it a strong effort overall, some of the album's nooks and crannies haven't aged all that well because of Fairbairn's overwrought production, featuring an exaggerated sleekness typical of most mid-'80s pop-metal albums". Martin Popoff defined Permanent Vacation "blatantly commercial" and rated the album "four-fifths brilliant or good, one-fifth middling or bad", citing the song "Angel" as "a career low". Loudwire ranked Permanent Vacation as Aerosmith's 6th best album and wrote that "its lavish '80s production has definitely dated, but 'Permanent Vacation' still ranks among the greatest musical comebacks of all time". Loudwire also placed the album at No. 4 on their 2017 list of the "10 Best Hard Rock Albums of 1987". Loudersound placed the album on their list of the 20 best albums from 1987 and called it a "collection of sublime pop-metal".
A VHS titled Permanent Vacation 3x5 was released in 1988 that is a compilation of promotional videos for "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", "Angel", and "Rag Doll". It also contained behind-the-scenes footage.
Adapted from the album liner notes.
Aerosmith
Additional musicians
Production