The unlikely team-up of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and Yorkshire’s punk-pop firebrand Yungblud has dropped a 5-track EP, One More Time. Four brand-new co-writes plus a glossy 2025 rework of “Back In the Saddle”, on paper, it’s the kind of generational collision that could either explode or implode. The result sits somewhere in the messy middle: thrilling in concept, slightly frustrating in execution.
Opener and first single “My Only Angel” sets the tone, a sleazed-up power ballad dripping with Tyler’s signature wail (or what’s left of it) layered over/under Yungblud’s snarling harmonies. “Problems” follows, a bratty, attitude-heavy stomper with a killer riff from Perry and feels like their classic album Toys in the Attic (from 1975) was dragged through 2025 via TikTok, yet it rocks.
“Wild Woman” is pure bad-boy swagger with a country twang and has 1980s era Bon Jovi fingerprints all over it…hmm. Yet you can almost hear the A&R memo being read aloud in the control room: “Right, lads, we need one big power ballad with a country twang for the streaming playlists”. While the brooding “A Thousand Days” shows flashes of great songwriting chemistry, but yet its another rock ballad. The re-imagined “Back In the Saddle” closes things with a bang rather than a whimper.
However, One More Time’s Achilles heel is its suffocating overproduction and relentless auto-tune assault, ruthlessly shaving every last jagged edge off Steven Tyler’s once-ferocious rasp. The voice that used to sound like a chain-smoking demon gargling Jack Daniel’s and broken glass now comes out unnaturally buffed and eerily pristine, at times bordering on AI-generated smoothness. Meanwhile, when Yungblud grabs the mic, he often slips into a copycat Tyler impression that borders on caricature. It’s a shame, because the lad can genuinely sing, just ask anyone who heard him nail “Changes” at Ozzy Osbourne’s final show.
That said, the partnership makes a strange kind of sense. Tyler, now retired from touring and no longer able to hit those stratospheric notes live, has essentially passed the toxic twin baton. Yungblud could slot into an Aerosmith-shaped hole the way Adam Lambert did with Queen – brash, theatrical, and fearless. Hey Youngblud, I hear there’s a job vacancy in Aerosmith!
Flaws and all, there’s enough raw energy here to remind you why both artists matter.
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