"I got my bell, I'm gonna take you to hell!"
AC/DC are a cock-rock band and you all know what this means
: it means they are dumb, ridiculous, loud, dirty, more than often self-parodic,
violent, formulaic all over their career ( with all of their album based on
power blues-metal chords and the "guitar in each speaker" trademark ), they
write lyrics full of subtile metaphors, like "Given The Dog A Bone", and of
course full of all the typical machismo of this genre.This should be enough
to bring a snubby prog-fan, like me, hating the band ; but I admit I like some
of their album and I consider this their peak.And that' s weird because I can'
t surely claim what makes this album better than its predecessors and its followers
: again the band shows us its childish and oversimplistic songwriting style,
again the band recycles some of the old riffs and melodies, again the band relies
on the powerful distorced blues-metal chords...but for some strange reasons
here these things perfectly work.But first of all, let me spend some words about
the singer, Brian Johnson ; as you probabily know, among AC/DC fans there is
an endless discussion : who' s the best AC/DC singer?The dead celebrity Bon
Scott or his replacement, Brian Johnson?Both of the singers are very similars
: a crunchy and roaring voice, able of piercing falsettos and evil grunts.Maybe
Bon Scott is the best, since his voice is more deep and warm -not to mention
trained- and these two features perfectly fits with the band sound ( or better
with the band' s guitar-tone, but let' s talk of it later, okay? ) ; Brian,
who sings on this album, is nothing but a goofball : he hasn' t all of the bluesy
background of Bon, but his vocal range is wider, he' s more savage and wild.In
one word : he' s exaggerated and this works good in this album that I consider
their best because all of their typical features are pulled to the limits (
lie the dumbness of the lyrics, the violence ofthe riffs...).Take for instance
the title track : here Brian stretches his voice to incrediuble heights, and
still without reaching the typical metal-falsetto ; his voice sounds incredible
on this track and it' s very adequate to the image that their music create in
my mind : a bunch of wild cavemen, trying to be loud and funny.
I think "fun" is the key-word you need to get past this record, to let tons
of silly lyrics got behind you, to stand millions of similar riffs, for the
most recycled, and stand the sheer brutality of their music.This music it' s
not written to appeal the intellectual who hides in you, this music is to make
you jumping around like a foolish headbanger, playing air-guitar and all of
those nice things.I' ve always wonder why all this stupidity, brutality, dumbness,
not to say mediocre musicianship, works here.In the opening summary I say this
album is 'mature' : mature because, after training themselves with the "guitar
in each speaker" feature in the previous albums, here they managed to give their
riffage and soloing the perfect tone, the greatest thickness they ever got.Here
comes all my respect for this band, for being the quintessential guitar-rock
band ( ok, the Rolling Stones should win the prize here, so let' s say guitar-arena-rock,
ok? ) : here, due to the production and to the maturity of players, the guitars
sound sharp as razors, heavy as dinosaurs, pounding as earthquakes, crunchy
as...a drunken cock-rock redneck, and raw&roaring of course!The rhythmic
section doesn' t get past of a steady 4/4 beat and fat, but way oversimplistic
basslines, but, hey, this is why we are are and AC/DC are the best in this sort
of blues metal.The opener "Hell' S Bells", my favourite track, is a menacing
and dark mid- tempo rocker : soem people complains it' s too slow, but the guitar
are so darn creppy and thick, and they sound so violent, like a clash between
two medieval knights! The anthemic "Shook All Night Long" has a great bluesy
riff ( togheter with "Shoot To Thrill", this one with a magnificent neurotic
solo ) and a pop-ish nuances in the choruses very well performed ( still they
aren' t obviously the Beach Boys ).Side two is preatty weak, just because it'
s too much similar to the first one without the impressive riffs.Howewer "Have
A Drink On Me" is rather good, thanks to the heavy-blues riffage, clearly inspired
by Led Zeppelin' s early works.
A great album of recycled stuff, monotonous in places, but still a solid offer,
maybe the best offer cock-rock has to show us.No more than a 11, because I can'
t honestly give an higher rating to an album with such stupid lyrics and so
trite songwriting.It' s just silly entertainment for braindead and each of us
needs this kind of mindless stuff at least once in his life.
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While I never was what you'd call an AC/DC fan and considered
most of their output to be pointless and primitively written I rarely ignored
the sheer brutality of their music. In that respect I've always judged them
for their simplistic (which I could tolerate) and overly repetitive (a thing
I resented a great deal) musical phrases, but also applauded the overall efficiency
they were mostly able to product. That aside, you have to understand that listening
to the same old barbaric "guitar in each speaker" style they've peddled
for thirty years left me deeply hating most of their work over the years, but
strangely enough, they weren't immune to this problem themselves so the band
suddenly started losing its impetus in the nineties and entered somewhat of
an five years long vacuum zone after the release of Ballbreaker, which
was quite undeservedly dissed by some fans. Personally, I saw nothing wrong
with that album as it never really stepped away from the trusty old AC/DC formula,
even though it obviously continued the gradual decline the band earned themselves
after, well, Back In Black, really. Here, most of this material seems
to hail to the highly productive glory days of the seventies with a more blues-based
crunch, thusly announcing the return to roots in the overall sound, as well
as songwriting which for the first time in a while seems less derivative than
usual.
Regardless, don't be fooled in thinking it's one of their best offerings cause
it's NOT. One of the more noticeable problems is the change of pace to a more
mid-tempo grind which was also thoroughly hurtful on Ballbreaker, but
seeing that the boys are stinging with some downright stomping power grooves
here I'm keen to forgive them. Still, I cannot and will not forgive these way
too emphasized similarities between the songs which give me the feeling that
Stiff Upper Lip is nothing but an overly drawn-out lengthy suite with
a bunch of sections that have only some minimal differences in structuring,
tempo, melodies and the like. There's simply not enough diversity featured here,
if any at all. Another part of the problem are the cock rock lyrics, which normally
always sucked, but here they are also quite senseless, insanely redundant and
unfortunately often deprived of the classic AC/DC humor. Also one of the gripes
most people have with this record are Brian Johnson's vocals, even though it's
widely acknowledged that he sounds a trifle better this time around. In my mind
I always thought that Johnson was an appropriate replacement for Scott so his
raspy banshee-styled singing is one of the positive elements for me.
Okay, after my boring school-styled work in the intro part lemme tell you that
despite all the shortcomings this stuff really RAWKS! What could be a better
way to kick down the door of the new millennium than with the screeching jams
by our favorite no-nonsense rockers? The opening title track displays some cool
bluesy chops and it has that certain "highway cruising" feel to it,
obviously made for driving around town (neatly shown in the video that had considerable
play time on MTV). Yeah, it's mid-tempo, but ball-to-the-walls mid-tempo! Well,
now, it's not like YOU haven't took its chunky groove as a perfect excuse to
get some serious foot-tapping going on. Anyway, don't bother putting the jolly
party mood of the title track on repeat when you have the blinding laid back
stomper "Meltdown" to make your head indulging in more of that, oh ever
so sweet, up-and-down routine. Hardly surprising then that it was wisely chosen
by many as the top dogg track off this quirky lil' album. Heck, when I hear
Brian going "Man it's getting hot, HOT, HOT!" it really feels like a
hellish choo-choo train is slowly rolling my way. Neat effect to be sure! There
was hardly a better way to continue rockin' and rollin' in style than with my
second favorite on the disc, the almighty blues-based powerhouse by the name
of "House Of Jazz". I simply adore the groovy feel, that steady crunch-driven
pace, the smartly constructed riff and most importantly, I love the hell out
of the vocals of our Mr. Banshee Man! That's what stone and wheelin' is all
about. Yup. Well, the lyrics do stink like my unwashed ass but that ain't a
problem if Brain, umm... Brian gets his kicks outta them.
"Hold Me Back" opens on a cheerful power-pop note with a happy-sounding
rhythm, but I'm sorry to say this, the chorus doesn't exactly contain the biggest
batch of hooks ever put together, and the melody vanishes halfway though and
never returns. Nice tune, but all-around it's probably one of the lesser ditties
on the record. "Safe In New York City" on the other hand (which I also
repeatedly saw on MTV – what's up with that?) raises tensions right from the
beginning constantly repeating the chorus line, but it fails to really cook
and gets a tad annoying after the first gazillion or so spins (which you should
grant your CD player with, cause after all, it's AC/DC), but that's just a small
to medium big misfire and nothing that you should occupy your headbanging skull
with. Meanwhile, "Can't Stand Still" grants us with a heckuva entertaining
intro that accidentally evolves into a full-grown AC/DC riff as it hops around.
But man, even though I respect the old cranky fart out of Mr. Brian "Cock
Rock" Johnson, I can't believe he honestly thinks that wailing "CAN'T
STAND STILL!!!" for four minutes equals a decent chorus line. And worse
yet, "Can't Stop Rock ‘N' Roll" doesn't step away from that magic formula
either, but here I can understand it since it's an anthem of sorts. Which is
fairly well described by the fist-clenching cover art, by the way. Well, yeah,
you've heard a whole lotta similar songs from AC/DC but "Can't Stop Rock
‘N' Roll" still works well.
And just when I thought that they guys lost their way I got a fine smack in
the rear by "Satellite Blues" which represents yet more of, well...
no-bullshit hard rawkin' of course. I suppose it's not particularly original
and it's an more or less conventional rocker, but the chorus is damn cool and
the hooks are gigantic in this one. Needless to say, it's yet another one of
my favorites. "Damned" has some mesmerizingly convincing vocal work
and the guitar tricks that were put in are also notable enough. Arguably the
slowest song on the record, "Damned" has a fine riff and even if it's
far from being truly bad, it just doesn't intrigue me in the slightest way imaginable.
Likewise, "Come And Get It" leaves me stone cold even if I'll acknowledge
that it benefits from a pretty good riff which unfortunately isn't that far
removed from other stuff here. It grinds, sure, but I'm not so sure if I want
it after all. Expectedly enough, "All Screwed Up" has a mighty riff,
one of the better ones here, and the guitar work is marvelous as always. Also,
this time even the chorus sounds less repetitive and I've got a great deal of
pleasure from it. Nevertheless, the record ends with a filler entitled "Give
It Up", basically an upbeat rocker which is standard fodder for AC/DC. Nothing
spectacular, but also not offensive.
After my somewhat praising handiwork earlier you're probably asking yourself
why a rating of eight then? Ya see, I do enjoy the dirty balls out of these
tunes but there's not a single smoking highlight here. Sure, solid riff-based
rock we got, but I'd really love them to deliver something, well, more unique.
What's here is great, but will I remember any of it in the long run? Solidity
is a worthwhile thing but you gotta know where to draw the line. I'll draw mine
under this review, thank you very much
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