{"id":13460,"date":"2014-09-03T01:00:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T05:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=13460"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:42:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:42:18","slug":"content-needed-the-album-by-album-challenge-acdc-part-i-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=13460","title":{"rendered":"The Album by Album Challenge: AC\/DC (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to Part II of the AC\/DC Album by Album Challenge. In this part we will pick up with 1985\u2019s Flick of the Switch and conclude with 2008\u2019s 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\u2019d 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\u2019s enough babble. Let\u2019s get started shall we?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Flick of the Switch<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date: August 15, 1983<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good:<\/strong> Flick of the Switch, Nervous Shakedown, Landslide, Bedlam in Belgium, Badlands, Brainshake<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>The Indifferent<\/strong>: Rising Power, This House is On Fire, Guns for Hire, Deep in the Hole,<\/p>\n<p>So this is where all of the sexual double meaning shit started. \u201cFlick of the Switch\u201d, \u201cDeep in the Hole\u201d, \u201cRising Power.\u201d 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\u2019s also talk about the overall \u201csound\u201d 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\u2019s just not a good sounding album at all.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9tqIOE-rPJU\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>There are some good songs on this album but even the good songs are just \u201cgood.\u201d They\u2019re not great and they\u2019re 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>===================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fly on the Wall<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> June 28, 1985<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good:<\/strong>Fly on the Wall, Shake Your Foundations, Sink the Pink, Back in Business,<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad<\/strong>: Danger, Playing with Girls,<br \/>\n<strong>The Indifferent:<\/strong> First Blood, Stand Up, Hell Or High Water, Send For The Man<\/p>\n<p>Fly on the Wall starts off so fucking strong with the title track and \u201cShake Your Foundations\u201d but damn does this album quickly get to be a real fucking bummer. Even as ridiculous as it is, I really love \u201cSink the Pink\u201d and that\u2019s a great fucking song. \u201cBack in Business\u201d is awesome too even though it does sound like a ripoff of \u201cMan on the Silver Mountain.\u201d Those are a few good tunes but man, really? \u201cDanger\u201d? \u201cPlaying With Girls\u201d? What a pile of dogshit those songs are. At least the album sounds a bit better produced than its predecessor.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gITW4HuPsBQ\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>Fly on the Wall isn\u2019t 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\u2019t think that this album is really worth what it would cost you unless you\u2019re 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\u2019ll be good to go.<\/p>\n<p>===================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blow Up Your Video<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> February 1, 1988<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good:<\/strong>Heatseeker, That\u2019s The Way I Wanna Rock N\u2019 Roll, Meanstreak, Go Zone, Kissin\u2019 Dynamite,<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong>Some Sin For Nuthin&#8217;<br \/>\n<strong>The Indifferent:<\/strong> Nick Of Time, Ruff Stuff, Two&#8217;s Up, This Means War<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201chits\u201d from this one. \u201cHeatseeker\u201d (huh huh, get it) is still pretty fucking kick ass but it\u2019s \u201cThat\u2019s The Way I Wanna Rock N\u2019 Roll\u201d 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 \u201cNick of Time the nosedive just commences.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3zy2pBoTuOQ\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>Here\u2019s the deal with Blow Up Your Video. It\u2019s a great sounding album. It\u2019s 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\u2019t suck, they are just nothing but filler. It\u2019s no wonder AC\/DC ignores so many of their songs when they know themselves that they were just fillers to complete an album. I\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n<p>===================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Razors Edge<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> September 24, 1990<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good<\/strong>: Thunderstruck, Fire Your Guns, The Razor\u2019s Edge, Are You Ready,<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad<\/strong>: Mistress for Christmas, Let\u2019s Make It,<br \/>\n<strong>The Indifferent<\/strong>: Got You By The Balls, Shot of Love, If You Dare<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll 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\u2019s Edge starts off so strong with \u201cThunderstruck\u201d 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 \u201cFire Your Guns\u201d which totally kicks ass. This album really starts off so strong. The title track is really a great song and kind of dark and \u201cAre You Ready\u201d totally reminds me something we could\u2019ve heard on Back in Black or For Those About to Rock.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CIhylLW4Fcs\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>So let\u2019s address the bad here. \u201cMistress for Christmas\u201d? Are you fucking kidding me? This album was the first album written solely but Malcolm and Angus Young so they can\u2019t even blame Brian Johnson for the shittiness of this song. \u201cLet\u2019s Make It\u201d is bad in it\u2019s own right but nowhere near as craptastic as \u201cMistress For Christmas.\u201d Here\u2019s the deal. The \u201cgood\u201d songs on this album all appear on the bands \u201cLIVE\u201d album that came out in the 90\u2019s and that is a fantastic live set so do yourself a favor. Skip this album completely and get the LIVE album and you\u2019ll be good to go.<\/p>\n<p>===================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ballbreaker<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> September 22, 1995<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The Bad:<\/strong> Cover You In Oil, Caught with Your Pants Down<br \/>\n<strong>The Indifferent:<\/strong> Hard as a Rock, The Furor, Boogie Man, The Honey Roll, Burnin\u2019 Alive, Hail Caesar, Love Bomb, Whiskey on the Rocks, Ballbreaker<\/p>\n<p>When this album came out it was being called AC\/DC\u2019s \u201ccomeback\u201d 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\u2019s too bad the songs couldn\u2019t mirror the production. A couple of songs like \u201cHard as a Rock\u201d and \u201cLove Bomb\u201d come close but then after a minute I\u2019m bored to fucking tears.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X9s_CQx4ylU\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>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 \u201cCover You in Oil\u201d and \u201cCaught with Your Pants Down\u201d but the other songs just pretty much all reside in the \u201cmeh\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>===================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stiff Upper Lip<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> February 25, 2000<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good:<\/strong> Give It Up<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<\/strong> House of Jazz, Safe in New York City, Can\u2019t Stand Still, Come and Get It,<br \/>\n<strong>The Indifferent<\/strong>: Stiff Upper Lip, Meltdown, Hold Me Back, Can\u2019t Stop Rock N\u2019 Roll, Satellite Blues, Damned, All Screwed Up,<\/p>\n<p>So this just may be AC\/DC\u2019s 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\u2019s grandmother. \u201cHouse of Jazz\u201d is the most ridiculous song I\u2019ve heard from them to date, \u201cSafe in New York City\u201d is just absolutely retarded, and \u201cCan\u2019t Stand Still\u201d is literally a rip off of their own song as they re-hash the \u201cThunderstruck\u201d riff on a song that kicks absolutely NO ass whatsoever.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k2sQaHnufcw\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>Can we just point out that the ONE GOOD SONG is the very last song and that it\u2019s called \u201cGive It Up\u201d? 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 \u201cindifferent\u201d songs, while they don\u2019t 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\u2019s hard to believe that at this point in their career that they just haven\u2019t figured out that the well is bone fucking dry. This also shows me that since I haven\u2019t bought and album since Razors Edge that I really haven\u2019t missed a goddamn thing.<\/p>\n<p>===================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Black Ice<br \/>\nRelease Date:<\/strong> October 20, 2008<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good<\/strong>: Rock N\u2019 Roll Train, Black Ice<br \/>\n<strong>The Bad:<br \/>\nThe Indifferent:<\/strong> Skies on Fire, Big Jack, Anything Goes, War Machine, Smash n\u2019 Grab, Spoilin&#8217; for A Fight, Wheels, Decibel, Stormy May Day, She Likes Rock N\u2019 Roll, Money Made, Rock N\u2019 Roll Dream, Rocking All the Way<\/p>\n<p>Before the release of Black Ice, the hype machine was in full force.  Excitement was building and this album was being called a \u201creturn to form\u201d and even some were calling it the band\u2019s 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.  <\/p>\n<p><center><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RHpClGAAvpg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The album (as usual) starts off strong with \u201cRock N\u2019 Roll Train\u201d and then from there it just proves to be a completely forgettable album.  None of the songs flat out sucked but aside from \u201cRock N\u2019 Roll Train\u201d 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\u2019s the kind of album you could put on at a party and while nobody would think it sucked, nobody would be like, \u201cMAN!  This is fucking awesome.\u201d  I just can\u2019t 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\u2019s like they have it but maybe they just don\u2019t have much awesomesauce in the reserves.  <\/p>\n<p>===================================<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to Part II of the AC\/DC Album by Album Challenge. In this part we will pick up with 1985\u2019s Flick of the Switch and conclude with 2008\u2019s 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\u2019d be curious to hear if there is anyone out there who agrees with me on these. If not, please speak [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,277],"tags":[678],"class_list":["post-13460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-by-album-challenge","category-music-news","tag-acdc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19532,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13460\/revisions\/19532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}