IN REVIEW: AC/DC - "Rock or Bust"

If you've paid attention to AC/DC's rock voyage, you're well aware by now just what kind of rocking you're in for when they release a new rock album. With their fifteenth worldwide album (they rocked out two in their native Australia previous to the beginning in earnest of their rocking career), the rock remains more or less unmoved from where it's always been.

If it feels like I'm saying the word "rock" often, I suppose I am; however, that's a direct result of frontrocker Brian Johnson's recent transformation into Fred Flintstone. With Rock or Bust, AC/DC adds four songs with the word "rock" in their titles to their already bustling rock title songbook; the title track, Rock the Blues Away, Got Some Rock & Roll Thunder and Rock the House. It's almost as though Johnson picked titles using rock n' roll flash cards and/or is a malfunctioning android at this point whose prime directive is to rock as often as possible and by any means necessary.

Whereas previous slab of rock (2008's Black Ice) actually had a few surprises in store for listeners (amongst four more songs with "rock" in their titles), Rock or Bust is content to give fans of the band the rock they want and nothing more. With rocking such second nature that they do it in their sleep by now, AC/DC slog through 35 minutes of mid-tempo rock with pretty much the same 4/4 rock beat throughout, provided by suddenly troublesome drummer Phil Rudd. Aside from a few slightly adventurous rock riffs by Angus Young (brother Malcolm's rhythm guitar work is sorely missed here), there's little rock n' roll variation to be had, and Johnson's rockabulary isn't exactly widely renowned for journeying outside matters of rock n' roll, drinking and loose women (personal opinion: Sweet Candy may have sounded sultry in his head, and might have worked in the '80s, but dude's 67 and creeping in the strip club isn't turning anybody on anymore).

That's not to say that this rock isn't still rolling; after all, you do know what you're getting here, right? Even AC/DC's worst, most derivative albums (Hello, Flick of the Switch. How's it going, Stiff Upper Lip? Fine, how are you, Ballbreaker? Just great, and yourself Blow Up Your Video?) are home to anywhere between one and three defining rock moments, and Rock or Bust's title track along with Rock the Blues Away and Hard (as a rock?) Times provide what very well may end up being the last three songs on your career-spanning rockcapsulation of AC/DC's career.

If you want AC/DC to just shut the rock up and play some rock n' roll, this album meets your minimum rock system requirements. But you won't find the rockjority up to snuff with much of anything they've rockleased in the past quarter century. So all told, Rock or Bust doesn't really give us a choice: it's both.

December 2, 2014 • Columbia

Highlights Rock or Bust • Rock the Blues Away • Hard Times

Year in Rock 2025

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