ACDC Retrospective: Album by Album

I'm going to go album by album and give a quick run down.  In the description I will put the predominate sound/genre/style, my favorite track, small review and a star rating.  I do not include compilations or live albums.  I chose the international versions of albums as well.

High Voltage(3 stars), Blues Rock
-This is the roughest sounding of the albums, but this also means its one of the most raw.  A big take away from this album is you will swear you've heard Chuck Berry or Little Richard play the riffs before.  Angus hasn't yet started doing his classic riffs yet.  My favorite is "Its a Long Way To the Top".

Dirty Deeds(4 stars), Blues Rock
-A direct continuation of High Voltage.  The mature parts got more mature, and the raunchy parts got even more raunchy.  They tried to up themselves and in general I feel they did.  My favorite is a hard choice... but Dirty Deeds is just iconic.  With Dirty Deeds we start seeing Angus take center stage in solos.

Let There Be Rock(3 Stars), Blues Rock
-We're getting more rock than blues by now.  A few of the songs start sounding like what you'll get for the next 20 years, but the band is still rooted in the bar room blues rock here.  My favorite song is easily "Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be".

Powerage(3 stars), Rock and Roll
-This is the first strong "ACDC" album that will set the tone for the rest of the band's history.  The band will go back to some blues rock some, but this is where they start pioneering Hard Rock.  There are still some blues and some Chuck Berry influence, hence the Rock and Roll classification.  My favorite song is Rock and Roll Damnation, and marks the first "favorite" off an album that is a song I had never heard before.

Highway To Hell(4 stars), Hard Rock
-Powerage gets kicked in the ass by Mutt Lange and Hard Rock is fully realized.  The last of the slow and sleazy Bon Scott era songs appear here, and while other songs on the later albums might try and copy, they just don't get the feel like this era.

Back in Black(5 stars), Hard Rock
-Not much I can say about this album, it is the best selling rock album of all time around the world.  My favorite song?  Holy crap is this the hardest one to choose my favorite by far... In the end I have to choose "Shook Me All Night Long" because I've known it longer and love its video too.

For Those About To Rock(2 stars), Hard Rock
-The sound is there for this album, but this is the start of really repetitive  choruses that go a few bars too long.  This will haunt the entire Brian Johnson era.  My favorite is by far the title track.  The band brought it, the lyrics just sort of slipped by

Flick of the Switch(2 Stars), Hard Rock
-The band tries to reconcile the older Bon Scott era with the new Hard Rock era and success.  Its a decent album, I just wish the lyrical content was less repetitive.  I'm not expecting Shakespeare, but repeating choruses just grates me.  My favorite is Landslide.

Fly on the Wall(3 Stars), Hard Rock
-It really is a shared sound with Flick and Those about to Rock.  Only there are a handful better songs than Flick of the Switch.  My favorite is probably Stand Up.

Blow Up Your Video (3 Stars) Rock
-SO close to being an amazing album, but it loses its momentum after the first 3 songs.  The band was flirting with more "modern" forms of blues, giving them a sort of Rock and Honky Tonk sound.  My favorite song is Heatseeker, which I learned to like with ACDC Live.

The Razor's Edge(5 Stars) Hard Rock
-Brilliant.  They flirt with Arena Rock style guitar shredding, but stay grounded in the Hard Rock sound they established with Back in Black.  My favorite song from this album is currently my favorite ACDC song of all: "Money Talks".

Ballbreaker(4 Stars) Rock and Roll
-Really good.  The group revisits what they tried with Blow Up Your Video, but do it much much better and more successfully.  My favorite ends up being Hard As A Rock because the riff is so simple and memorable, like older ACDC.

Stiff Upper Lip(1 Star) Rock and Roll
-The only album I was disappointed in.  Its the closest thing to phoning in or doing the rock version of elevator music.  There is almost no change in the songs throughout the songs.  The problem of repeating chorus lyrics is finally matched by repeating instrument parts as well.

Black Ice(5 Stars), Hard Rock
-Brilliant again.  While there are a couple of questionable choices by the producer(Brendan O'brien), the band came back strong and rocked things hard.  Songs about wanting to rock, living like a rock star, and continuing to rock all the time.  In the end, Rock and Roll Train is addictive in lyrical content, and the guitars are memorable and catchy, one of the "perfect" ACDC songs.


The star ratings are my thoughts over all, but it doesn't mean the highest star ratings are my favorites.  For example, I like Ballbreaker better overall than Black Ice despite being rated 1 less star.  And even though I have Highway to Hell higher stars, I think I like the Dirty Deeds album better than it also.

Just for those that may be curious, while Highway to Hell has to be my most memorable cover, my favorite cover is on my least liked album.  I love the statue of Angus on Stiff Upper Lip and would like a small replica for my desk.