I felt a brief post was needed on the latest albums by AC/DC and Motorhead.
The New album from AC/DC - 'Black Ice', which is currently giving them their first number one album in the UK in 18 years, is currently being hailed as a return to form - with some even claiming it to be their best work since Brian Johnson's first album as singer, the classic 'Back in Black'.
The last AC/DC album I bought, was 'Flick of the Switch', when I was about 14. I loved it. I then started to loose interest in Angus and Co, and when I returned to listen to the album around 5 years ago, I discovered that it is pretty piss poor. I sampled a few of their outings since then, and was equally underwhelmed. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the new record does actually contain their best work in 25 years or more.
Indeed, I would venture to sat that it could have been even better if they had edited a bit better. There are 15 tracks on this new record, and if I has been doing a Rick Rubin, I would have axed about 8 of them, and told them to come up with another 3 that were as strong as the other 7. As it is, this is just a good solid rock record, and not the great record it really could have been.
That said songs such as: 'Rock 'n' Roll Train', 'Skies of Fire', 'Anything Goes', 'War Machine', and 'Stormy May Day', all work very well. I never thought i'd say this, but worth checking out.
Meanwhile, Lemmy and Motorhead are also still banging the albums out. Here too, the quality has been patchy over recent years, but again, they seem to had suddenly got it right again. The new album, 'Motorizer', is one of my favourites of the second half of this year so far.
Don't get me wrong, there is no re-invention of wheel going on here - this still sounds exactly like a Motorhead album; but with the like of 'Runaround Man', 'English Rose', 'Teach you how to sing the blues', 'Heroes', and 'Thousand names of God', this along with the Metallica album in one of the few essential hard rock album of the year. Buy.
Rock Out Promo Video (not one of album's best tracks)
The New album from AC/DC - 'Black Ice', which is currently giving them their first number one album in the UK in 18 years, is currently being hailed as a return to form - with some even claiming it to be their best work since Brian Johnson's first album as singer, the classic 'Back in Black'.
The last AC/DC album I bought, was 'Flick of the Switch', when I was about 14. I loved it. I then started to loose interest in Angus and Co, and when I returned to listen to the album around 5 years ago, I discovered that it is pretty piss poor. I sampled a few of their outings since then, and was equally underwhelmed. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the new record does actually contain their best work in 25 years or more.
Indeed, I would venture to sat that it could have been even better if they had edited a bit better. There are 15 tracks on this new record, and if I has been doing a Rick Rubin, I would have axed about 8 of them, and told them to come up with another 3 that were as strong as the other 7. As it is, this is just a good solid rock record, and not the great record it really could have been.
That said songs such as: 'Rock 'n' Roll Train', 'Skies of Fire', 'Anything Goes', 'War Machine', and 'Stormy May Day', all work very well. I never thought i'd say this, but worth checking out.
Meanwhile, Lemmy and Motorhead are also still banging the albums out. Here too, the quality has been patchy over recent years, but again, they seem to had suddenly got it right again. The new album, 'Motorizer', is one of my favourites of the second half of this year so far.
Don't get me wrong, there is no re-invention of wheel going on here - this still sounds exactly like a Motorhead album; but with the like of 'Runaround Man', 'English Rose', 'Teach you how to sing the blues', 'Heroes', and 'Thousand names of God', this along with the Metallica album in one of the few essential hard rock album of the year. Buy.
Rock Out Promo Video (not one of album's best tracks)
Comments
That's okay, though. It's just nice to know they're still out there making noise and wearing short pants.