Search - Ac/Dc :: Flick of the Switch

One of my favorite AC/DC albums, actually

finulanu | Here, there, and everywhere | 06/19/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After the pomp and circumstance of For Those About to Rock, the group cut the crap, came back with a whole new arsenal of cool riffs, and proceeded to keep on rockin' the house. It didn't sell too well because of the lack of a huge hit single, but hey, it's good! I'd say it's Brian's best album with the band, other than Back in Black. And it's definitely a high point for Angus - his solos on every song are spectacular, but my favorites come from "Rising Power," the title song, "Guns for Hire" (which also has a pretty sweet hammer-on/pull-off intro), and "Deep in the Hole". And Brian's vocals are at their most powerful: listen to him on "Nervous Shakedown" or "Landslide," one of the fastest songs the group has ever done. He sounds great! Malcolm's really performing also, churning out memorable, hard-hitting riffs on every single song, with the blues "Badlands" arguably having the best on the album. And how about "Bedlam in Belgium"? One of the finest AC/DC songs, period, regardless of who's singing it. Everything great about this album is firmly in place and in fact excelling expectations. And the lyrics are actually good, by AC/DC's standards. Clever title, too. Speaking of lyrics, they're much more mature than usual - a lot of commentary about the general insanity of the world, protesting all the violence in the world. Or at least I think they're protesting, because as you'd expect from AC/DC's lyrics, they're sarcastic and exaggerated. I wouldn't call a single one of these songs, other than "Bedlam in Belgium," a classic, but it's all it needs to be: a collection of solidly enjoyable songs. And, most importantly, they're having fun again, here in the wake of the "We are rock messiahs!" attitude of For Those About to Rock. "Brain Shake" is just a blast, and "This House is on Fire" is so entertaining I don't even care that the chorus melody is taken from "Hells' Bells". So I'm gonna defiantly give this a high score. How about that? And I used to think it was terrible, too! Which is why I deleted my old one-star review. Time changes everything..."