Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
In a time when the everyday is considered both mind-numbingly static and constantly galloping out of control, it is to feel a sense of reassuring stability that can be held onto in the chaos, the sandstorm of unremitting fear that frames the known unknown in which the strength of constancy is but a small but powerful pleasure, that AC/DC return and offer a reminder of permanence that the Rock lover didn’t know they were to be graced with.
Flick the switch, allow that stiff upper lip to wobble gently as romance and nostalgia hove into view, and praise be that one of the Godfathers of the genre are back, maybe not in black, but back in view and almost certainly against all the odds that were placed in the bands’ way. In all honesty, and regardless of whether you are a fan of the band or not, Power Up should arguably have never come to be, almost everything aside, the loss of Malcolm Young should have been enough to suggest, to insist, that the flag should have been lowered, removed from its pole with dignity and solemnity, and the last post played in memory of a band that transcended the way Rock is perceived.
However, AC/DC have been down this road before, the death of a performer and frontman such as Bon Scott would have destroyed any other band, but in a time of uncertainty, when the backs are against the wall and the critical believe they can deliver the final blow, the heroic, the brave, the obstinate and those that refuse to give way to the knuckles of the dull and beige, rise up and take another breath and kick back; they Power Up their courage and weapons of choice and continue to defy convention, age and the snake eyes dice thrown by fate, and deliver if not their best album of their career, but an album that the public needed more than ever.
Like many of AC/DC’s albums, Power Up is not about the individual or the solitary track, rather it is about the whole experience, and whilst the album doesn’t perhaps grab the mind in the same way as The Razors Edge, Back In Black or Dirty Deeds Done Cheap, it does wonders for the soul, it reminds the listener that adversity and suffering are there to be pounded into submission, to be crushed under the heels of hope and the talent that each one of us has in our life.
Power Up is an album’s album, it is a conformation that despite all that has been thrown at them, there is still a command to the way the band operate, and a huge back catalogue of songs that still need to be heard, just waiting for the right moment to be released.
Across tracks such the single Shot In The Dark, Through The Mists Of Time, the prophetic Kick You When You’re Down, Wild Reputation and No Man’s Land, Angus Young, Brian Johnson, Phil Rudd, Cliff Williams and Stevie Young tackle those dark times and memories and deliver an album of sincerity, an AC/DC album no one was expecting, but one that is gratefully received.
For those about to rock…don’t let anyone ever tell you when you are finished, don’t tell them your plans, show them the results and stick the proverbial two fingers up to the world, because nobody has the right to tell you when you’re done.
Ian D. Hall