How does it sound? It sounds like AC/DC. It sounds good. AC/DC's new album "Stiff Upper Lip" (Elektra) has so many indestructible elements of the band's sound that there's no way a hard rock fan can pass it up.
First, the attitude is completely there--mean, bluesy, hormonal. (Why leave women out by claiming that the band is "ballsy?") Second, the band is tight, and everyone pulls off what he's best known for: drummer Phil Rudd's bass drum kicks and minimal hi-hat, Angus Young's searing guitar solos on track after track, vocalist Brian Johnson's dishing out his usual bad-ass swagger as he sings street-tough moral maxims; if you listen closely, you can hear not only Johnson's throaty, chewed-up falsetto (or his natural register, if that's really what it is), but a simultaneous lower growling, a sort of emphysema wheeze. ("This one was a 135,000 cigarette album," he said.)
The whole package never backs away from the band's call-and-response way of blasting out a riff, then giving Johnson his line. The secret to the album's strength might be that George Young, the brother of Angus and rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young, produced the album, his first with the band since "Powerage" in 1978.
Through and through, AC/DC creates AC/DC so perfectly that it sounds as if the band just made the record after "Back in Black." Would their seriousness help them get the part if they auditioned for "Spinal Tap II?" Maybe, though what really comes through in their execution is that the band hasn't progressed much. But it could be that they don't need to, because they pull off this bulletproof blues 'n' boogie without sounding formulaic. Whatever you decide, just make sure you crank it up for the old lady next door--the vibrations will help clean the stains off her teeth as they soak in the glass.
