Sometimes an album is released to get exciting new music out into the world. Sometimes it\u2019s intended to make an artistic statement. And sometimes it\u2019s simply to wave the flag: \u201cHey! You! We\u2019re still here!\u201d<\/p>\n
Power Up<\/i> certainly feels like the latter, an album that\u2019s notable simply for existing, given all the reasons it shouldn\u2019t. AC\/DC\u2014a group I once described as \u201ca big, loud, rude and crude rock and roll cartoon<\/a>\u201d\u2014had rolled through the 20-teens like a jalopy losing one part after another in a Looney Tunes<\/i> short. First rhythm guitarist Malcom Young\u2019s health issues forced his departure and replacement by his nephew Stevie Young; then drummer Phil Rudd was charged with attempted murder-for-hire; then lead vocalist Brian Johnson suffered hearing loss severe enough to rule out live performance and stepped away in the middle of the band\u2019s 2016 world tour; and finally bassist Cliff Williams announced plans to depart after the tour\u2019s end.<\/p>\n After all this\u2014and Malcolm\u2019s death in 2017\u2014it seemed for a time like the world might get find out whether Mal\u2019s younger brother, schoolboy-uniformed lead guitarist Angus Young, now in his mid 60s, would dare to continue the band without a single other longtime member. But no. First Rudd resolved his legal troubles<\/a>. Then Johnson was given a fresh lease on his performing life by new hearing technology<\/a>. And finally, with the latter two back in the fold, Williams reversed course. With the return of Brendan O\u2019Brien\u2014producer of the group\u2019s previous two latter-day discs Black Ice<\/i> (2008) and Rock Or Bust<\/i> (2014)\u2014the old gang was truly back together again.<\/p>\n With all that said, if you were expecting something fresh and new from Power Up<\/i>, I don\u2019t really know what you were thinking. This is a band whose entire persona has been constructed around the idea that the music should not change, that what they have always done\u2014at times spectacularly well\u2014requires no embellishment or evolution. Their shtick has been remarkably consistent for nearly 50 years: no-frills, bombastic, three-chord rock and roll occupying a stylized headbangers\u2019 universe in which the only bad words are subtlety and ballads. <\/p>\n It\u2019s in fact hard to argue that this review is any more necessary than this album, because there is so little new to say about a band that has been plowing the same field relentlessly for so long. And yet, there\u2019s no denying the charge that fires up the old amygdala when the group launches into energetic riff-rockers like the opening trio of \u201cRealize,\u201d \u201cRejection,\u201d and \u201cShot In The Dark.\u201d There is nothing remotely innovative about these tunes, but I defy you to remain still in their presence.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, while the music carries a charge, the lyrics here are so generic and clich\u00e9-ridden that you\u2019re hard-pressed to remember a single one five minutes later, other than the angrily misogynistic \u201cRejection.\u201d And in fact, these 12 songs\u2014co-credited to Angus and Malcolm, the latter of whose library of unused riffs the former has admitted he continues to pillage\u2014feel more like a throwback to the half-dozen forgettable albums the group issued between 1981 and 2000 than anything before or since; it\u2019s strictly paint-by-numbers AC\/DC.<\/p>\n The highlights beyond the opening trio don\u2019t take long to cover. \u201cThrough The Mists Of Time\u201d is dim as a cloudy midnight but achieves a nice melodic lift; the rumbly \u201cKick You When You\u2019re Down\u201d features a fat backbeat and fatter gang vocals; and the complicated main riff of \u201cDemon Fire\u201d is entertaining enough to make you momentarily overlook its Twilight Zone <\/i>Mad Lib lyric.<\/p>\n Back in the day, AC\/DC was a band with musical flair and a sneaky-smart sense of humor to counterbalance their bludgeoning heaviness and natural showmanship. This album, by contrast, feels like all hammer and flash, and precious little craft. I\u2019ve read other reviews that emphasize the fun in these grooves, but I\u2019m not hearing it. The group\u2019s late, great former frontman Bon Scott would have taken a song title like \u201cMoney Shot\u201d and turned it into a hilarious string of self-deprecating double entendres; here it\u2019s just another faceless rocker.<\/p>\n As an exercise in raising the flag, Power Up<\/i> certainly gets the job done. Beyond that, though, it slips into the black hole of mostly forgettable post-1980 AC\/DC releases. Enjoy the singles. Enjoy the fact that this band of senior citizens can still rock with vigor and authority. Just don\u2019t come in expecting more than the practical purpose this album feels intended to fill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5683],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-46153","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ac-dc","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46153","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=46153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46153"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}