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AC/DC “Power Up” the album charts with new release

“I need a pick me up, a Rollin’ Thunder truck” – Shot in the Dark #pwrup

AC/DC’s new album “Power Up” hit the streets last week and is already heading for the number 1 spot in various album charts around the world.   This, their 17th Studio album, comes at the end of a turbulent time for the band since their last album, 2014’s “Rock or Bust”, with well-documented personal issues affecting different band members and culminating with the death of co-founder and rhythm Guitarist Malcom Young’s death in 2017.   Angus says in an interview in Rolling Stone Magazine “This record is pretty much a dedication to Malcolm, my brother. It’s a tribute for him like Back in Black was a tribute to Bon Scott.”  The majority of the tracks selected for this album were written by Malcom and Angus in 2008 and the album recorded over 6 weeks in summer 2018 at Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, Canada with producer Brendan O’Brien.

The album itself is everything you’d expect from AC/DC – Raw, rude, and raucous rock with a side-serving of roll – and finds the boys (Angus Young – lead guitars, Stevie Young – rhythm guitar, Brian Johnson – Vocals, Cliff Williams – Bass, Phil Rudd – Drums)  in fine form.  Angus and Stevie Young’s guitars very much to the fore with Johnsons lyrics punching through over Rudd’s drums  and Williams Bass grumbling down in the depths.  Current single “Shot in the Dark” and “Demon Fire” are the stand-out tracks with their raw energy, punchy riffs and vintage AC/DC feel.  “Kick you when you’re down” sounds like a reflection on the last few years, with it’s opening lyric “As you’re slipping down the wall/And you’re headed for a fall/Why do they kick you when you’re down?”.

At the end of the day, every track is a banger, with the band delivering everything you’d expect, in style and their own unique swagger.  Anthemic choruses and hooks abound that are certain to get hands in the air at stadiums around the world when the band can tour again.   In the meantime, this is an album to put on, play loud and forget the world for a while.  As Johnson sings in the opening line of “Shot me in the Dark”, “I need a pick me up, a Rollin’ Thunder truck”, and that is going to be the best description you will ever get of “Power Up”, ever!

POWER UP TRACKLISTING:

  1. Realize
  2. Rejection
  3. Shot in The Dark
  4. Through the Mists of Time
  5. Kick You When You’re Down
  6. Witch’s Spell
  7. Demon Fire
  8. Wild Reputation
  9. No Man’s Land
  10. Systems Down
  11. Money Shot
  12. Code Red

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