ERIC Clapton is paying his respects to Mr Johnson, and Chris Rea has immersed himself in the deepest blues.

So here come rock poodles Aerosmith to turn the blues up to 11, in a horny homage that is a little bit ZZ Top, a whole lotta Led Zep, and not at all Van Morrison.

The sleeve picture glories in a pink lipstick smudge on a mouth organ and a sticker that declares "Blues Done Aerosmith Style!". Note the exclamation mark. When Aerosmith wake up with the blues this mornin', they feel randy rather than feel for the brandy bottle - and that's why they call the one original track here The Grind.

These are blues for two, not the lonesome.

Aerosmith doing blues covers may not be as absurd as it first sounds. Back in the dinosaur age before the waterbed-lipped Steven Tyler mutated into a Stones-cloning stadium rock pastiche in the late 1980s, back before Joe Perry's guitar was permanently on heat, they started out playing blues of the grimy kind.

This is a healthily rude Aerosmith album - their first since 2001's Just Push Play - as they enjoy a lascivious romp with Bo Diddley's Road Runner, raise hell on Baby, Please Don't Go and get heavy handed with You Gotta Move.

The closing detour into O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack territory, massed choir and all, for Jesus Is On The Mainline is as surprising as Peter Andre's comeback.

Updated: 09:03 Thursday, April 08, 2004