AEROSMITH “Pump.” Geffen ** 1/2:*****Great Balls of Fire:**** Knockin’ on Heaven’s:*** Good Vibrations:** Maybe Baby:* Ain’t That a Shame

Back in the ‘70s, everybody assumed Aerosmith was ripping off the Stones ... and they were. Since the early ‘80s, everybody’s been ripping off Aerosmith instead, which is different. Back then Aerosmith was sort of generically bluesy like every other hard-rock band (though each song had at least one awesome hook), and rock ‘n’ roll intellectuals particularly hated Aerosmith because they wrote tight, commercial radio songs in an era when pop was a dirty word. Also, their smirky lyrics were dumb beyond belief. Eighties hard rock is, of course, an Aerosmithian tincture of swagger, smut and pouty pop craft.

In ‘87, Aerosmith listened to all the baby Aerosmiths the way the Kinks had listened to Van Halen’s cranked version of “You’ve Really Got Me” 10 years before, and came out with the monster album “Permanent Vacation,” which for a while out-Aerosmithed them all. The problem is, Guns N’ Roses, Motley Crue, Raging Slab--even Poison--make better Aerosmith albums these days. And now, in this era of total Aerosmithification, comes the oddly non-Aerosmithy “Pump.”

There are spooky, Peter Gabriel-ish intros on instruments like dulcimers and didjeridus, and riffs that are copped from AC/DC and the Zep. One song, “The Other Side,” sounds like minor Rod Stewart, complete with horns and raspy moans, and another, “Janie’s Got a Gun,” has a groove you’d expect to hear from the Police but not from Aerosmith.

The hooks are of the lightweight, catchy variety, ones you can almost imagine Martika or someone using--not like, say, the forged-iron swoop in “Rats in the Cellar.” And the songs are stripped down to the point where they seem almost pop sketches (they’ll probably sound terrific filled-out live).

Still, of all the Aerosmithsonians, Aerosmith remains closest to the blues, the sexy, insinuating soul of hard rock, and Steven Tyler sings even the lamest double-entendres (“Stuck in an elevator / Livin’ it up while I’m goin’ down”) with passion.