The Album by Album Challenge: AC/DC (Part II)

Welcome to Part II of the AC/DC Album by Album Challenge. In this part we will pick up with 1985’s Flick of the Switch and conclude with 2008’s Black Ice. These later years albums by AC/DC seem to have become inconsistent but will things change? Will things get better? Well, just remember that these words are merely my opinion. I’d be curious to hear if there is anyone out there who agrees with me on these. If not, please speak up and defend your own stance. Ok, that’s enough babble. Let’s get started shall we?

Flick of the Switch
Release Date: August 15, 1983

The Good: Flick of the Switch, Nervous Shakedown, Landslide, Bedlam in Belgium, Badlands, Brainshake
The Bad:
The Indifferent: Rising Power, This House is On Fire, Guns for Hire, Deep in the Hole,

So this is where all of the sexual double meaning shit started. “Flick of the Switch”, “Deep in the Hole”, “Rising Power.” FACEPALM. Evidently Mr. Johnson was getting laid a lot since joining AC/DC because from here on out it seems that this is the kind of shit that would make up the topics of AC/DC songs. Let’s also talk about the overall “sound” of this album. What a shitty sounding album. It sounds so thin and lifeless unlike their previous albums. The production is just flat and it’s just not a good sounding album at all.

There are some good songs on this album but even the good songs are just “good.” They’re not great and they’re definitely not mind-blowing. Flick of the Switch as a whole is just really forgettable. There is nothing on this album that stands out to make me feel like I was hearing something truly great. It’s like they just coasted by with this album as a means to get back out on the road. Flick of the Switch just has no consistency to it and it sounds rushed. This is a total skipper.

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Fly on the Wall
Release Date: June 28, 1985

The Good:Fly on the Wall, Shake Your Foundations, Sink the Pink, Back in Business,
The Bad: Danger, Playing with Girls,
The Indifferent: First Blood, Stand Up, Hell Or High Water, Send For The Man

Fly on the Wall starts off so fucking strong with the title track and “Shake Your Foundations” but damn does this album quickly get to be a real fucking bummer. Even as ridiculous as it is, I really love “Sink the Pink” and that’s a great fucking song. “Back in Business” is awesome too even though it does sound like a ripoff of “Man on the Silver Mountain.” Those are a few good tunes but man, really? “Danger”? “Playing With Girls”? What a pile of dogshit those songs are. At least the album sounds a bit better produced than its predecessor.

Fly on the Wall isn’t much better than Flick of the Switch in ways of song quality. There are a few great moments (and I do mean great) but I would almost recommend just getting those few songs and including them in a playlist. I definitely don’t think that this album is really worth what it would cost you unless you’re just a completist and you want everything. Just steal it from a friend or something and grab few good tunes off of it and you’ll be good to go.

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Blow Up Your Video
Release Date: February 1, 1988

The Good:Heatseeker, That’s The Way I Wanna Rock N’ Roll, Meanstreak, Go Zone, Kissin’ Dynamite,
The Bad:Some Sin For Nuthin’
The Indifferent: Nick Of Time, Ruff Stuff, Two’s Up, This Means War

So the new AC/DC formula at this point must be to start an album out really strong and then about 4 or 5 songs in just take a huge ass nosedive into mediocrity. I fucking LOVED this album as a kid and to be honest, I think I was more a fan of the “hits” from this one. “Heatseeker” (huh huh, get it) is still pretty fucking kick ass but it’s “That’s The Way I Wanna Rock N’ Roll” that truly fucking kicks ass. This song totally reminds me of old school Bon Scott and just proves to me that they still had it in them to do some pretty great shit. Unfortunately, starting with “Nick of Time the nosedive just commences.

Here’s the deal with Blow Up Your Video. It’s a great sounding album. It’s REALLY well produced and it sounds super fucking good. The good songs on this album are really great (as opposed to just good) and even though the indifferent ones don’t suck, they are just nothing but filler. It’s no wonder AC/DC ignores so many of their songs when they know themselves that they were just fillers to complete an album. I’d say that much like the last couple, just steal it from a friend and snag the good songs from it. This one is totally not worth owning.

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The Razors Edge
Release Date: September 24, 1990

The Good: Thunderstruck, Fire Your Guns, The Razor’s Edge, Are You Ready,
The Bad: Mistress for Christmas, Let’s Make It,
The Indifferent: Got You By The Balls, Shot of Love, If You Dare

I’ll just never understand just how a band that is obviously capable of writing some amazing fucking songs can put out such consistently mediocre albums. The Razor’s Edge starts off so strong with “Thunderstruck” which, to this day, still sits up there as one of their best songs. This song is so fucking solid and then going right into “Fire Your Guns” which totally kicks ass. This album really starts off so strong. The title track is really a great song and kind of dark and “Are You Ready” totally reminds me something we could’ve heard on Back in Black or For Those About to Rock.

So let’s address the bad here. “Mistress for Christmas”? Are you fucking kidding me? This album was the first album written solely but Malcolm and Angus Young so they can’t even blame Brian Johnson for the shittiness of this song. “Let’s Make It” is bad in it’s own right but nowhere near as craptastic as “Mistress For Christmas.” Here’s the deal. The “good” songs on this album all appear on the bands “LIVE” album that came out in the 90’s and that is a fantastic live set so do yourself a favor. Skip this album completely and get the LIVE album and you’ll be good to go.

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Ballbreaker
Release Date: September 22, 1995

The Good:
The Bad: Cover You In Oil, Caught with Your Pants Down
The Indifferent: Hard as a Rock, The Furor, Boogie Man, The Honey Roll, Burnin’ Alive, Hail Caesar, Love Bomb, Whiskey on the Rocks, Ballbreaker

When this album came out it was being called AC/DC’s “comeback” album. Phil Rudd was back on the drums and supposedly this was them returning to form. Well, the only thing that returned to form on this album was the production. The album sounds absolutely fantastic. It’s too bad the songs couldn’t mirror the production. A couple of songs like “Hard as a Rock” and “Love Bomb” come close but then after a minute I’m bored to fucking tears.

On Ballbreaker, not one single song stands out on this album as a truly great or even good song. Matter of fact, the band themselves play with like zero fire. They sound bored and completely tapped out of ideas. The only truly horrible songs on this album are “Cover You in Oil” and “Caught with Your Pants Down” but the other songs just pretty much all reside in the “meh” category. This album just falls completely flat and is absolutely forgettable. This is an album you can completely do without and not be missing a single thing.

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Stiff Upper Lip
Release Date: February 25, 2000

The Good: Give It Up
The Bad: House of Jazz, Safe in New York City, Can’t Stand Still, Come and Get It,
The Indifferent: Stiff Upper Lip, Meltdown, Hold Me Back, Can’t Stop Rock N’ Roll, Satellite Blues, Damned, All Screwed Up,

So this just may be AC/DC’s worst album of all time. The one word I could best use to describe this album is annoying. The songs on this album just annoy the living fuck out of me. The repetitive melodies and chanted lyrics just make me want to go kick Brian Johnson’s grandmother. “House of Jazz” is the most ridiculous song I’ve heard from them to date, “Safe in New York City” is just absolutely retarded, and “Can’t Stand Still” is literally a rip off of their own song as they re-hash the “Thunderstruck” riff on a song that kicks absolutely NO ass whatsoever.

Can we just point out that the ONE GOOD SONG is the very last song and that it’s called “Give It Up”? How fucking ironic is that? The fact that they pulled out ONE GOOD SONG was a fucking shock and a half to say the least. The “indifferent” songs, while they don’t suck, are just absolutely forgettable and just blah. The band sounds absolutely bored out of their minds and just tapped out of ideas (sound familiar?). It’s hard to believe that at this point in their career that they just haven’t figured out that the well is bone fucking dry. This also shows me that since I haven’t bought and album since Razors Edge that I really haven’t missed a goddamn thing.

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Black Ice
Release Date: October 20, 2008

The Good: Rock N’ Roll Train, Black Ice
The Bad:
The Indifferent: Skies on Fire, Big Jack, Anything Goes, War Machine, Smash n’ Grab, Spoilin’ for A Fight, Wheels, Decibel, Stormy May Day, She Likes Rock N’ Roll, Money Made, Rock N’ Roll Dream, Rocking All the Way

Before the release of Black Ice, the hype machine was in full force. Excitement was building and this album was being called a “return to form” and even some were calling it the band’s best album since Back In Black. I purchased this album when it was released, listened to it once, and that was the end of that. Listening to this album in full for the first time in six years I was quickly reminded just why.

The album (as usual) starts off strong with “Rock N’ Roll Train” and then from there it just proves to be a completely forgettable album. None of the songs flat out sucked but aside from “Rock N’ Roll Train” and the album closing title track, none of these songs stood out on their own as particularly strong. They were all just very, well, just there. It’s the kind of album you could put on at a party and while nobody would think it sucked, nobody would be like, “MAN! This is fucking awesome.” I just can’t help but feel that maybe AC/DC is long past their prime of putting out quality material. They obviously can do at least 1-2 good songs on an album so it’s like they have it but maybe they just don’t have much awesomesauce in the reserves.

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