As unlikely as it might seem to get all meta about an AC\/DC album (of all things), the arrival of 2014\u2019s Rock Or Bust<\/i> inspires a question: at what point does a band that has always existed as a sort of parody, become a parody of itself?<\/p>\n
The Bon Scott-fronted AC\/DC of the 1970s were the quintessential bad boys of rock, a crude, rude rock and roll cartoon that paired Scott\u2019s winking, lascivious dark humor with brother duo Angus and Malcolm Young\u2019s bottomless supply of thundering hard rock riffs. Since Scott\u2019s untimely death in 1980, Brian Johnson has manned the mic with equal fervor but only occasional hints of Scott\u2019s leering, roguish wit. <\/p>\n
With a handful of exceptions, AC\/DC since the Scott-influenced Back In Black<\/i> has often felt like a band living inside its own over-large shadow. The riffs have always been there, of course, but the songs have rarely measured up to what came before. And now we\u2019re faced with the spectacle of a band of sixty-somethings\u2014several of them surely grandfathers by now\u2014treating arenas full of fans to songs like \u201cBig Balls\u201d and \u201cGirls Got Rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been interesting to watch the band navigate the transition to and through middle age. The albums and tours slowed way down\u2014Rock Or Bust<\/i> is only their second release since 2000\u2019s Stiff Upper Lip<\/i>, following 2008\u2019s Black Ice<\/i>\u2014while at the same time, the songs began to change. The sky-rattling riffs remained, of course, fresh ones arriving with sledgehammer certainty every three or four minutes, but the lyrics largely turned away from the cheeky come-ons of the group\u2019s younger days to serial \u201cLet There Be Rock\u201d-styled reassertions of the power of rock and roll itself. Four of this album\u2019s 11 tracks feature \u201crock\u201d in the title and all four carry basically the same message, captured in the title track\u2019s memorable chorus: \u201cIn rock we trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
A handful of double entendres surface on late-arriving tracks like the fiery \u201cSweet Candy\u201d and the clunky \u201cEmission Control,\u201d but positioning these two as the final cuts on the album only reinforces the sense that the band\u2019s heart isn\u2019t really in this part of their shtick any more. They\u2019ve moved on, approaching serious topics semi-seriously on tracks like \u201cDogs Of War\u201d and \u201cHard Times,\u201d in between self-referential yet reaffirming numbers like \u201cRock The Blues Away,\u201d \u201cGot Some Rock & Roll Thunder,\u201d and \u201cRock The House.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to disconnect that shift in tone from the circumstances surrounding this album, which saw founding member, rhythm guitarist and musical engine Malcom Young retire from the band due to dementia, to be replaced by his and brother Angus\u2019 nephew Stevie Young. (Adding to the chaos, after the album was completed, longtime drummer Phil Rudd ran into ongoing legal troubles which kept him from the promotional photo and video shoots for Rock Or Bust<\/i>, and may prevent him from touring in 2015.)<\/p>\n
What hasn\u2019t changed\u2014what will assuredly never change\u2014is the basic sound, the propulsive power chords and slicing solos over raw blues-rock beats. Returning producer Brendan O\u2019Brien again brings out the best in the band\u2019s oversized sound, allocating ample space for each individual instrument plus the band\u2019s secret weapon, the chorused background vocals anchored by veteran bassist Cliff Williams.<\/p>\n
At this point, duckwalking, schoolboy-uniform-wearing lead guitarist Angus Young is the group\u2019s sole remaining founding member, and Rock Or Bust<\/i> often feels like a celebration of the band\u2019s own survival. And while there are some concessions to age in the lyrical content, the riffs are as fat and powerful as ever, and ringing anthems like the title track, \u201cBaptism By Fire\u201d and \u201cPlay Ball\u201d sound ready to take their rightful places on the group\u2019s decades-spanning setlist. <\/p>\n
This album could easily have slipped into self-parody, but it doesn\u2019t. Instead, it shows a band still full of gusto and fire and determined to prove itself a survivor one more time. The past is the past, and the future is uncertain; this album exists firmly in the now, and the now rocks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":32236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5683],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-43989","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ac-dc","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43989"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}