JoeLumb's Album Review AC/DC "The Razor's Edge (1990)

 Ten years prior AC/DC released "Back in Black" the album turned out to be the best selling hard rock/heavy metal album of all time. A year later came "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" it was their first #1 record in the U.S. and went four times platinum and then the rest of the 80's happened with a pair of unsuccessful albums 1983's "Flick of the Switch" and 1985's "Fly on the Wall" "Flick of the Switch" would be Phil Rudd's last album until he returned for 1995's "Ballbreaker" he would be replaced by Simon Wright for "Fly on the Wall" and 1988's "Blow Up Your Video" which became more successful than "Flick of the Switch" and "Fly on the Wall" 

Following the success of "Blow Up your Video" AC/DC's World Tour in support had to be cut short due to Rhythm Guitarist Malcolm Young took time off from the group to check himself into rehab in hopes for recovery for his alcoholism,Thankfully the nephew of Malcom and his brother Lead Guitarist Angus Young named Stevie filled in for Uncle Mal for the remainder of the tour. Following the tour Simon Wright left to join Dio for the recording of "Lock Up The Wolves". So Chris Slade ended up getting the job as the new AC/DC Drummer. 

Writing and recording for what would become "The Razor's Edge" proved to be a challenge. Initially George Young was involved early on the process,but he bowed out due to personal issues,singer Brian Johnson was unavailable for months because he was going through a divorce. So Angus and Malcolm wrote all the songs themselves and it took time for them,Bassist Cliff Williams,drummer and Drummer Chris Slade to get the music together and Brian Johnson came in just in time to bellow out his gravely voice. 

One of the things that made "The Razor's Edge" such a successful record was the opening riff to the first track "Thunderstruck" just showed Angus' remarkable ability to fiddle with his left hand and came up with such an excellent riff. According to Author Murray Engelheart who wrote his memoir of AC/DC titled "AC/DC:Maximum Rock and Roll" he states"On songs like Mistress for Christmas and Moneytalks The Young Brothers showed their working class roots despite multi-million selling albums,by taking aim at high flyers in the business world. Malcolm stated in a Guitar World Magazine article in 1991 "The funniest song on this album is "Mistress for Christmas" that song's about Donald Trump. He was (and still is as of writing) big news,so we thought we'd have a bit of fun and humor with it.

"The Razor's Edge was produced by Bruce Fairbairn (known for cranking out hit albums from Bon Jovi and Aerosmith) released on September 24,1990 the album reached #2 on the U.S. charts and remained on the chart for the next 77 weeks selling 5 million copies in the States while sold in between ten to twelve million across the rest of the world. "THe Razor's Edge" is the band's fourth highest selling album after "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap","Highway to Hell" and "Back in Black"

It was the first AC/DC album I ever purchased when I was 13. That opened the door for me to get into AC/DC even more. My overall rating of this record is a 90/100 "Thunderstruck" "Fire Your Guns" "Moneytalks" "Mistress for Christmas" "Are you Ready" and the title track are all my favorite tracks on the record.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

JoeLumb's Album Review Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet" (1986)

 It's been a while since I did an album review on Blogger so before this month ends which happens to be at midnight November 30th. I should do an album review "Slippery When Wet" is Bon Jovi's third studio album released on August 18,1986 through Mercury Records in the States and Canada and Vertigo Records the rest of the world. This album would be called the album that turned heavy metal into a radio-friendly pop format and is also commonly seen as a breakthough for "Hair Metal". You see when writing and recording for the record. Following the moderate success of 7800 Fahrenheit Bon Jovi had not become international superstars. So by the time to start album number 3 the band needed to change it's approach to a more mainstream sound than the heavier self titled 1984 record and the Fahrenheit album.  The majority of the album was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora with the exception of "You Give Love a Bad Name","Livin' on a Pra...
Read more

JoeLumb's Album Review Metallica's "...And Justice For All" (1988)

 August 25,2023 is the 35th anniversary of Metallica's fourth record "...And Justice For All" the first with new bassist Jason Newsted formerly of  a metal band out in Arizona called Flotsam and Jetsam. After the tragic death of Bassist Cliff Burton while on a European Tour in late September of 1986.  "Justice" was recorded from January 28,1988 to May 1,1988 at One on One Recording Studio in Los Angeles,California initially Metallica hired Mike Clink to produce the record however he was fired and Fleming Rasmussen was brought in to oversee the album's production. Rasmussen had produced two of Metallica's previous efforts "Ride the Lightning" and "Master of Puppets" "...And Justice for All" was a much different record than "Lightning" and "Puppets" The Mixing of the album was different than the two previous albums according to Rasmussen himself he was not there when the mixing took place that was on Steve ...
Read more

JoeLumb's Album Review Scorpions "Lovedrive" (1979)

 When the Scorpions released "Lovedrive" in 1979 the record is or was considered by which critic you ask to be the pinnacle of their long and storied career and they have been around since the mid 1960's. But here's the backstory behind the formation of The Scorpions. Formed in Hanover,Germany in 1965 by Rudolf Schenker,but it really didn't come fully together until 1970 when Rudolf's younger brother Michael joined as well as a singer by the name of Klaus Meine. The Scorpions released their first record "Lonesome Crow" in 1972,then Michael Schenker left the group so Rudolf turned to Michael's friend Uli  Roth to join Schenker,Meine,Bassist Francis Buchholz,Drummer Jurgen Rosenthal and a keyboard player named Aichim Kirschning and that lead to their second record 1974's "Fly to the Rainbow" which was more successful than "Lonesome Crow" soon their third and fourth albums "In Trance" and "Virgin Killer" w...
Read more