Pondering The New AC/DC Album

Delimma. I don’t know what to do about the new AC/DC record. This issue started with Ballbreaker, the first “return to form” record from ’95 or whatever. The idea that it was being produced by Rick Rubin was attractive and the lead-off single “Hard As A Rock” certainly sounded like the boys were back in the game. Hell, they even got drummer Phil Rudd back in the fold. But the rest of the album was shite, an embarrassment, and why nobody bothered to tell any of the band that the idea of a song like “Cover You In Oil” was worthy of release is beyond me.
It’s over a decade later and similar rumblings are happening again. This time it’s producer Brendon O’Brien and this time it’s an album that you can only get at Wal-Mart.
I said, “this time it’s an album that you can only get at Wal-Mart.”
This exclusivity screams of money. After all, Back In Black is only behind a few albums in terms of most copies sold and the Young brothers must have taken notes while watching The Eagles hit pay dirt with Long Road Out Of Eden.
And, by the way, Long Road Out Of Eden has sold over three million copies, despite the fact that The Eagles suck stinky balls and nobody listens to the fucking album anymore.
So it’s easy to dismiss Black Ice as another one of those marketing strategies that will probably work even when the work itself is shit.
But hold the phone: early reports are that the thing is actually good! Realistically, it should be, particularly when it takes them a bagillion years just to make the album and, if we’re really paying attention here, it’s been over a quarter century since AC/DC even put out a decent album anyway.
The Razors Edge you say?
I say “Fuck off.”
Who Made Who?
Doesn’t count: compilation.
The fact is, AC/DC is pretty much a one-album band (Back In Black) since Bon Scott died and to disprove it, they need one more album before they cash in that proves otherwise.
And the rumor is that Bon was still around when the material for Back In Black was in its early stages, so there you go.
Sure, Brian Johnson is laughing all the way to the bank, but wouldn’t he like to be included in the conversation when everyone is talking about the reverence that AC/DC holds? Or will he be content with being pigeon-holed as the “dude who parlayed Bon Scott’s corpse into a rather large bank statement?”
For shame, dude. Now put your money where your (barely tolerable) mouth is an deliver the album that officially makes AC/DC a band with four decades of credible releases and, more importantly, your own fucking place in their legacy.
The press is intriguing, but this won’t be an impulse purchase for me. I’m playing it safe and going to try before I buy.
After all: I can’t even pawn off my copy of Ballbreaker to anybody.