Printer Friendly

URL: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/24014121/acdc_the_essential_albumbyalbum_guide

Rollingstone.com

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

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

From their humble beginnings through the blockbuster "Black Ice"

ROLLING STONE

Posted Nov 13, 2008 9:00 AM

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

HIGH VOLTAGE (1976)
Key Tracks: "T.N.T.," "She's Got Balls"
Quick Take: Perhaps AC/DC's most crucial innovation is the way their lyrics make plain the boys' locker room conception of sexuality that had previously bubbled just under the surface of most heavy-duty rock. Shamelessly sexist panderers or refreshingly frank entertainers? AC/DC fits both descriptions, but none of it would matter if guitarist Angus Young wasn't such a gargantuan riffmonger equipped with a Godzilla-like rhythm section to boot. High Voltage established that sound that would stick for over three decades.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP (1976)
Key Tracks: "Love at First Feel," "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
Quick Take: Frontman Bon Scott perfected his adonoidal screech for Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, highlighted by the titel track: a trashy, irresistible revenge fantasy grounded by the Young brothers' Howitzer-sized attack.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

LET THERE BE ROCK (1977)
Key Tracks: "Let There Be Rock," "Whole Lotta Rosie"
Quick Take: AC/DC's early albums were perfectly frenetic, but inconsistent. Their second U.S. LP was almost all killer. Scott sings "Bad Boy Boogie" and "Problem Child" like he's the enfant terrible. And while "Whole Lotta Rosie""is classic Scott, Angus' solos are true white heat. There was real flame, too — his amp caught fire during a take of "Let There Be Rock." The band played on.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

POWERAGE (1978)
Key Tracks: "Kicked in the Teeth," "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation"
Quick Take: Despite having an excellent album cover, Powerage marks one of the few early AC/DC albums without a signature rocker on it, though "Sin City" has been covered by a number of subsequent bands, most notably Twisted Sister. Still, there's nothing essential.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

HIGHWAY TO HELL (1979)
Key Tracks: "Highway to Hell," "Shot Down in Flames"
Quick Take: Superproducer "Mutt" Lange sculpted AC/DC's rough-granite rock into a chart-smart boogie on this album, AC/DC's first major U.S. hit. Malcolm and Angus also brought some of their best riffs to the table ("Shot Down in Flames," "Girl's Got Rhythm"). Scott is in exultant voice, but it's hard not to hear some prophecy now in his outlaw growl on the title song.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

BACK IN BLACK (1980)
Key Tracks: "Back in Black," "You Shook Me All Night Long," "Hell's Bells"
Quick Take: Back to work weeks after Scott's death, Malcolm and Angus paid unspoken tribute to him in the title song and the all-black cover of this worldwide smash. But Brian Johnson's howl is a tailor-made complement to Malcolm's crushing chords and Angus' lead seizures in "Hells Bells." "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" pretty much sums up the Youngs' worldview.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK (1981)
Key Tracks: "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)," "Inject the Venom"
Quick Take: AC/DC write a lot of songs with the word "rock" in the chorus. The title song of this album is one of the best, with an unusual stop-start effect in the rhythm that hooks you just as hard as their usual railroad drive. (Live, they use real cannons for the booms.) Other rusted-throat and guitar-fist salutes: "I Put the Finger on You" and the unsubtle "Let's Get It Up."

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

FLICK OF THE SWITCH (1983)
Key Tracks: "Flick of the Switch," "Nervous Shakedown"
Quick Take: Produced by the band, Flick of the Switch isn't quite the monster blowout that 1980's Back in Black was, and the Young's retooling of old riffs for new hits also teeters on self-plagiarism at times. But how can you argue with a Molotov cocktail hour that incudes such crass fun as "This House Is on Fire" and the whiplash rocker "Brain Shake"? Sure, if you've heard one AC/DC album, you've heard them all, but Flick of the Switch makes for one hell of a crash course.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

FLY ON THE WALL (1985)
Key Tracks: "Hell or High Water," "Sink the Pink"
Quick Take: Fly on the Wall is a mid-career disappointment, though Angus Young is in great form, playing the dumbest, most irresistibly repetitive chords in his lexicon. Even for AC/DC, "Sink the Pink" is staggeringly sexist.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

WHO MADE WHO (1986)
Key Tracks: "Ride On," "You Shook Me All Night Long"
Quick Take: A quickie soundtrack album, Who Made Who nevertheless works as an effective introduction to the group: Previous triumphs ("You Shook Me All Night Long") contrast with reclaimed later efforts ("Sink the Pink," from Fly on the Wall) and a completely out-of- character '70s blooze number called "Ride On."

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

BLOW UP YOUR VIDEO (1988)
Key Tracks: "Heatseeker," "That's the Way I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll"
Quick Take: AC/DC returns to business as usual with Blow Up Your Video, where even the hottest riffs ("Heatseeker") don't seem to detonate with the same gratifying crunch. Still, it became their biggest selling album since For Those About to Rock and set the stage for the band's 1990s renaissance.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

THE RAZOR'S EDGE (1990)
Key Tracks: "Thunderstruck," "Money Talks"
Quick Take: After a few albums that sounded like old ideas warmed over once too often, this is a near-comeback, busting out with Angus' wasp-army trills in the first song, "Thunderstruck." AC/DC were in their wilderness years — drummer Phil Rudd, who left in '83, would not be back until the next album. But there was enough solid rock ("Fire Your Guns," "Money Talks") to put this one in the Top Five.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

BALLBREAKER (1995)
Key Tracks: "Hard as a Rock," "Caught With Your Pants Down"
Quick Take: After a three-year break the band returned to the studio for the Rick Rubin-helmed Ballbreaker. Perhaps using Rubin, whose work with bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers had made him the de facto hard rock producer of the day, was a stab at relevance. Motivations aside, Ballbreaker has a spark that the band had been missing on most of its late era work, with tracks such as "Hard as a Rock" and "Cover You in Oil" sitting comfortably next to any other behemoth in its arsenal.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

STIFF UPPER LIP (2000)
Key Tracks: "Stiff Upper Lip," "Come and Get It"
Quick Take: AC/DC returned in 2000 with Stiff Upper Lip, a somewhat tired collection, lacking the energy of Ballbreaker and smelling suspiciously like an excuse to rake in more arena ticket money. Guess what? None of the tens of thousands of fans who packed those concert halls cared one whit, as AC/DC were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

• AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock and Roll

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.