AC/DC: The Essential Album-by-Album Guide

BLACK ICE (2008)
Key Tracks: "Rock N Roll Train," "Big Jack"
Quick Take: For a group of guys who are so convinced they're an "album band" that they refuse to sell their songs individually online, AC/DC have had trouble making consistent albums since 1981's For Those About to Rock. While Black Ice pulls away from that trend, it doesn't reverse it: The album feels longer than its 55 minutes, thanks to a stretch of throwaway rockers. But there's something almost elegiac about Black Ice's multiple odes to rock, including the huge single "Rock N Roll Train." These guys are true believers, fighting a war no one told them ended long ago. The band still finds resonance in words that were clichéd by 1956. And for that, you've got to salute them.