Post by StevePulaski on Dec 6, 2014 15:15:57 GMT -5
Rock or Bust (2014)
By: AC/DC
By: AC/DC
Rating: ★★½
Rock or Bust is not only the shortest album of AC/DC's catalog, clocking in at just thirty-five minutes, efficiently complimenting an average morning commute, but it's also the first album in the band's history where leading guitarist Malcolm Young is absent, leaving the band in April 2014 after being diagnosed with dementia. Before leaving, Malcolm put his brother Angus and nephew Stevie Young in charge of keeping the band alive, with Angus assuming the duties of the lead guitarist and Stevie the rhythm guitarist. Combine this shakeup with the tardiness and controversy brewed by the band's legendary drummer Phil Rudd, who has now left the band after murder allegations arose, and you have an AC/DC record that was ostensibly bound to be two things - short and different.
However, Rock or Bust reassures potential skepticism on the latter part of the record being a departure from the predicted sound of an AC/DC record, which is often characterized by songs boasting themes of rock and roll music and innocuous metaphors to sex and the rockstar lifestyle. Adding to the fact that two of the former leading guitarist's closest family members collaborated on the record, working to restore and capture the original band's sound by the use of old demo tapes, Rock or Bust is very much an AC/DC record, slim and briskly-paced to give us precisely what we enjoy the most about the band.
Consider the opening titular track, which makes its presence within ten seconds by asserting boisterous guitar riffs and ear-shattering drums in a way all-too familiar for this band. On top of that, consider how the album flows, with one slam-bang song after another, lasting on average of two or three minutes, effectively creating a rock and roll atmosphere in a zero-to-sixty fashion before moving on to the next piece and repeating. AC/DC does this for eleven tracks, with songs like "Get Some Rock & Roll Thunder" and "Hard Times" standing out, sounding like the quintessential pieces of "dad rock" with their bombastic nature and their repetitive but addicting lyricism.
The album concludes in a stronger manner than it starts out, as if there is a psychological complex in your brain that allows you to register the music is that of AC/DC and acknowledge its familiarity during the first half of the record before perhaps enjoying the later songs on the album more because you've learned to roll with what you're given. "Sweet Candy" provides for a subtly sexual tune before concluding with the album's strongest outing, "Emission Control," a thunderous display of talent on all fronts, right down to fantastic guitar tricks by the Young's, which sound as if they are coming straight out of the seventies like a bat out of hell.
Rock or Bust is exactly the kind of AC/DC album you expect; an album that's familiarity makes you realize that little changes, even with six years between this album and its predecessor (in my opinion, the more impressive Black Ice) or in a little over four decades, for that matter. The leanness of the album helps its case, as another four or five tracks would've easily derailed the album into a cheap, carbon-copy collection of styles from yesteryear. This new AC/DC that we have is going to need time to gets its footing, especially with Rudd's exit and recent display of "rockstar behavior" likely going to find the band in a pickle of finding new talent. However, with the album the band has concocted on such short notice to hold longtime fans over, I have a feeling the sound will come fairly quickly and AC/DC will be back with their recognizable brand of rock soon enough, really exciting us rather than just tickling our fancies. I can't totally recommend Rock or Bust, but if you ask me if you should check it out, I'd probably give you a wink and a nudge.
Recommended tracks (in order): "Emission Control," "Get Some Rock & Roll Thunder," "Hard Times," and "Sweet Candy."
