 | Tracklist:
1. It's a long way To The Top If You Wanna Rock N Roll
2. Rock N Roll Singer
3. The Jack
4. Live Wire
5. T.N.T
6. Can I Sit Next To You Girl
7. Little Lover
8. She's Got Balls
9. High Voltage
| Ranking: #20 for 1976 | |
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On 6 Lists
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| Summary: Old school AC/DC. If you like hard/classic rock, pick this up. |
2 of 2 thought this review was well written
AC/DC is:
Angus Young-Lead Guitar
Malcolm Young-Guitar
Bon Scott-Vocals
Phil Rudd-Drums
Mark Evans-Bass Guitar
AC/DC has come along way since their international debut High Voltage released in 1976. Some of their greatest hits are on this album including The Jack and TNT. If you are a fan of AC/DC hen this album is a must. Allow me to explain...
Firstly, this is AC/DC's most old school release (it is their international debut album) which a good thing. The driving guitar riffs, the melodic solo's, the powerful vocals provided by Bon Scott were all fascinating. But after a while I started to lose interest mainly because I discovered some more complicated bands such as Van Halen, Rush and Megadeth which were a little more intersting to me. I still love this album though. Something about it jut made me want to rock out to it again after a long time of ignoring it.
The guitar sound on High Voltage has less distortion than any of AC/DC's other releases, but is a repectable sound. Some of the guitar when the notes ring for a while seem very unconsistant, almost as if some notes were ringing when they weren't supposed to [Check out the song Live Wire at the beginning). I think that the guitar tone on this album is the best sounding one on any AC/DC record to date, but some of the guitar riffs were very novice level guitar riffs. Like the riff on TNT. Any beginner guitarist could hve wrote that, but then again the Young brothers were young then.
The drums and bass are very simple, but the vocal styles of Bon Scott are some of the best vocals out there, and are very fitting to the music. Although Bon's voice may tend to annoy many people, he is still one of the most respected vocalists out there (ranked #5 on Best Heavy Metal Vocalists list on Hit Parader magazine). His voice seems to be high pitched, fun, and whiney which is a good thing. The band questioned the continuance of AC/DC when he died in February 1980.
Bon's lyrics are rarely bad. Some of them are pure genius, like this exerpt from Rock N Roll Singer:
I left school
And grew my hair
They didn't understand
They wanted me to be repected as
A doctor or a lawyer man...
...but I had other plans
Gonna be a rock and roll singer...
Bon still remains one of my favourite lyricists to date. RIP.
Guitar solo's on this album are not to be missed because Angus Young is one of the best guitarists around, but I think he is somewhat overrated. Angus usually ranks in the Top 5 of any "Best Guitarists" list, but he should be scaled back a little bit. To me, there are plenty of guitarists better than him that rank way further back on those lists (ie: Alex Lifeson, Brian May, etc.). I feel that Angus misses a lot of notes sometimes when he plays live, although a very entertaining live performer. But he does write and perform some of the most memorable guitar licks out there. One example from this album is the solo on The Jack. The bagpipe solo on It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock And Roll) adds a very nice touch to the song
Some of the slower tunes on this album (The Jack and Little Lover) are some of the albums best tunes. But the hard rockers such as Rock N Roll Singer, TNT, and She's Got Balls are more appealing to me. More exciting to listen to and a lot more fun to play in your band.
Well there you have it. My 10th full review. I think it was pretty well explained. Votes are appreciated, thanks.
Recommended Tracks
Rock And Roll Singer
TNT
Little Lover
She's Got Balls
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Not really... GENIUS songwriting... but overall it's entertaining, and fits the whole vibe of the musics and what not.
Tolerable. I like AC/DC when I feel like "yeah rock and roll *riff*", but many people dislike it. Oh well.}
Nice writing. BTW you mistagged something like [b] [ /i] haha. Nice overall look on all the album without taking parts out or whatever.
Digging: Giant Squid - The Ichthyologist
| | | Album Rating: 4
BTW you mistagged something like [b] [ /i] haha ah i see. thank you.
Digging: Megadeth - Endgame | | |
Nice review.
As you know I'm not a big AC/DC fan but the songs I do like are mostly from around this time.
| | | Album Rating: 4
R'nR Singer use to be my fav AC/DC song. Right now Livewire is my fav from this album. IMO, Let There Be Rock has the best guitar tone from the Young bros. All their real early stuff just plain rocks though.
Actually there are a couple studio albums before this. Though this is their 1st international studio album. Good review man.
| | | Album Rating: 4
why thank you. Yeah Let There Be Rock has a fantastic guitar tone, but I like this one better myself. I'll change the debut info thanks :thumb:
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