After the success of the soundtrack album for the Stephen King film “Maximum Overdrive”, which AC/DC released under the big single’s name “Who Made Who”, they returned to with their follow up album “Blow Up Your Video”, an album that had two big popular singles, and also saw the band return to Australia for the first time since 1981 to begin their world tour to support the album. So, for Australia at least, Accadacca was back, and the album... well... it was marginally okay. Much like those other albums of the 1980’s mentioned here, the reception was generally mixed. There were some good songs, there were some average songs. It wasn’t really like the AC/DC that everyone really wanted. Live, there was no question the band still had it. The albums though, even though they sold well (“Blow Up Your Video” again went to #2 on the Australian albums chart), were still a mixed bag.
Following the tour, the band saw some movement for the first time in a while. Drummer Simon Wright decided to move on, joining Dio for their “Lock Up the Wolves” album and tour. Chris Slade, a friend of the band, was brought in as his replacement. Malcolm Young had already taken time off for the tour of North America, primarily to deal with his alcoholism, and had been replaced by nephew Stevie Young in the interim. In the lead up to writing for the new album, Brian Johnson was unavailable for several months, as he took the time to finalise his divorce and put his life back into order. This meant that, for the first time since his recruitment into the band, he was not involved in the writing sessions for the album. Angus and Malcolm were the sole creators of the tracks for the new album, something that continued for all albums from this point on.
The band brought in Bruce Fairbairn as producer for the new album, and travelled to Vancouver in Canada to record. Fairbairn had just come off a couple of years with some success, having produced Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet” and “New Jersey” albums, along with Aerosmith’s comeback albums “Permanent Vacation” and “Pump”. So he seemed to be a handy person to have in the control booth at that point in time. AC/DC, on the back of increased exposure from their previous album, now looked to use that to propel themselves back into the limelight, and the album that they hoped would do that was “The Razors Edge”.
The opening song on this album set the tone for everything that followed for the next three years. It created a tsunami of sorts, from the first time the opening guitar was heard on the first instance the song was aired to the world. AC/DC has produced some of the greatest and well known songs of all time, but “Thunderstruck” was a different level at the exact right time. Coming off the previous album, which had sold well and saw the bands stocks rise, they needed something to come out and blow away everything that fans around the world might have thought they could produce. And “Thunderstruck” was that song. Containing all of the energy and the fire that the band could produce, musically, vocally and Angusly. Sure it might look a bit less exciting live now, 35 years on from this album, but at the time Brian was 43 years old, Malcolm 37 and Angus 35. They were in their prime, full of the bounce and energy that comes across when you listen to this song, and then this album. And on the tour that followed, watching Chris Slade and his drumkit rise from below the stage as he was counting into the song was just amazing. “Thunderstruck” was an anthem, nothing less. It not only boosted the band around the world, it led off what was to be one of AC/DC’s most important albums of their career.
What follows is just as impressive, a line up of songs that is arguably better than almost everything the band put together during the 1980’s decade. “Fire Your Guns” channels that energy of the opening track and jams up the tempo and fire and pumps it through the speakers. This could genuinely be the last fast paced song that AC/DC ever wrote and performed, and it increases the adrenaline from the outset. I get that the band wasn’t big on fast tempo’s, but they show with “Fire Your Guns” that they could do it as well as anyone else around, and for me it is a shame they didn’t do it more often. “Moneytalks” brings the melodic back to the band and pulls back the speed to a more regular AC/DC like tempo, including backing chanting vocals that come from the best of the band’s songs. This is the crowd favourite, lots of great singalong vocals as a part of its makeup, with that solid as ever rhythm section plugging along and allowing Brian and Angus to just do their thing. As the follow up to the opening single it charted top 30 in the US, UK and Australia. Then comes the more serious sounding, moody foreboding title track “The Razors Edge”. In a 1992 interview with Muchmusic, Angus was quoted: “‘The Razors Edge’ comes from an old saying farmers used to use in Britain where you’d have a fine sunny day, you know, a very good day with a hot sun, and then all of a sudden right in the distance you could see these black clouds coming over the horizon, an ominous thing. I thought it was a great title”. The song was the Young’s way of suggesting that although the world of 1990 looked as though things were going well, there is always a threat lurking around the corner. Musically and lyrically it evokes these themes and is just a wonderful change of mood after the opening three tracks.
The mood changes again with the tongue-in-cheek rendition of “Mistress for Christmas”. In a February 1991 interview with Guitar World Angus stated, “I think the funniest song on this album is ‘Mistress for Christmas.’ That song’s about Donald Trump. He was big news at the time, so we thought we’d have a bit of fun and humour with it.”. I wonder if Angus is laughing now? The opening side of the album concludes with “Rock Your Heart Out”, another fast tempo track that exacerbates the themes of this album when it comes to the pace it is being played at.
The B Side opens up with the crowd live anthem of “Are You Ready”, with lots of backing gang vocals from Malcolm and Cliff that perfectly offset everything that Brian is expressing with his lead vocal. Songs like this have always been important for the band when it comes to their albums, but on occasions during the 1980’s there was not enough outstanding material to allow this kind of song to work at its best. It is fair to say that here on “The Razors Edge” that isn’t a problem. The band then channels back into its past to come up with “Got You by the Balls”, a song of a tempo and lyrics that has a bit of a feel of ‘been there, done that’. On the other hand, “Shot of Love” has a more upbeat and contemporary vibe about it, a song that harbours all of the history of the band but in a more modern setting. It is a surprisingly fun track. The remainder of the second side slips into a more anachronistic style, sliding into the style of track that you would have already heard in the middle sections of the album released in the 1980’s, songs that fill the holes of the remaining cracks without either offending the listener nor being memorable in any other way. “Let’s make It”, “Goodbye and Good Riddance to Bad Luck” and “If You Dare” all tend to slide by unnoticed, except for the fact that they are the run of songs to close out the album. In a way it is probably slightly disappointing to have songs like this conclude what is, for the most part, a terrific album. Perhaps the Young Brothers just ran out of puff, and went back to format to finish everything off. The songs here aren’t bad, but compared to those on offer on Side A they just come across as a bit bland.
I’d always heard AC/DC being played around the traps through my teenage years. Those well known Bon Scott era songs like “TNT” and “High Voltage” and “It’s a Long Way to the Top”, they popped up here and there. And “You Shook Me All Night Long”. All of those songs. I recently reviewed their 1985 album “Fly on the Wall” - episode 87 for those who are interested – and spoke about how I recalled seeing those songs and videos just prior to my heavy metal awakening at the end of that year. And eventually finding those albums came over the course of the next period of time. The first album I actually owned of AC/DC was “Blow Up Your Video”, and that concert in Sydney in February 1988 was the third concert I ever attended. The story of how we sat in the front row of the Sydney Entertainment Centre for that gig is a good one, but not to be related here at this time.
By the time 1990 had rolled around, my immersion in the heavier form of music had well and truly taken shape. And by September 1990 I had been inundated with amazing albums to listen to – those following this podcast know the albums that I speak of and of their particular significance in the history of heavy metal music. And so another AC/DC album could easily have been submerged beneath the gloriousness of what was coming out around it and find itself completely ignored as a result. But for me at least, this AC/DC album was different. From that amazing opening of “Thunderstruck”, it is very difficult to ignore and not dive further into the album. Follow this up with “Fire Your Guns”, “Moneytalks” and the title track, and the album has its hooks in you. The trick for AC/DC was to always find an opening track and first single that had that Angus guitar riff, the one that settled over the rhythm and immediately became an iconic and momentous event. I’d always felt “Who Made Who” had done that at a time when the band needed a boost, and it definitely was the case here with “Thunderstruck”. It was quintessential AC/DC and it blazed the way for the remainder of the album. And there is little doubt that this album got a huge boost over this period and then for the next 12 months, leading into AC/DC’s return to Australian shores, and the second time I was able to watch them live at the Sydney Entertainment Centre – and once again, from the front row. The sun shines even on a dog’s arse on occasions.
For the last week and a bit, I have had “The Razors Edge” back on my stereo. I still have my original CD copy from 1990, but I now also own a first print vinyl from the day as well, and this is the copy that I have enjoyed the most over the last few days. And even amongst all of the other albums that I have listened to over the past month – amazing, unforgettable albums as well – this has still stood up against them in enjoyment factor. I still love this album, even the second half of the album where maybe if one was to be critical it begins to slip off a bit. This for me was their best album since Brian Johnson’s first appearance on “Back in Black”. To me it sounds like a similar album, an album where the band was unsure of just where it was headed prior to its recording, and this album put the ship back on course.
For me, this is the last great AC/DC album. There are some fine, solid albums to come after this, ones that are most memorable for the younger kids coming into the band having been brought up by their parents to love AC/DC, and then having new release albums of their own to enjoy in the same way we had with albums such as this. But it was never quite the same, although some would claim that the fact that they WERE all the same was what the problem was in the first place! No matter what reasoning you want to use, this album recaptured the very best of what made AC/DC such a classic Australian band, and in an age where heavy music was on the verge of such extraordinary change, this album still stands as a testament of what an album sounds like when it is done right.
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