AC/DC
Black Ice
[Columbia-2008]
We didn’t know Allison Stewart dabbled in music criticism. After a 1991-93 stint, she left MTV News for the real thing—or what passes for it these days—and became an award-winning journalist (Emmy, Peabody) we kinda assumed that was the end of her professional relationship with the world of music.
So imagine our surprise when we came across her Washington Post review of the new AC/DC album Black Ice. Especially since she starts things off noting how the band “hasn't made a great album since For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”—actually, they haven’t made a great album since the undeniable classic Back in Black [Atlantic-1980]; FTABTR was OK but the last decent one was Flick of the Switch [Atlantic-1983], which was a cool quarter century ago—and proceeds to disparage Black Ice’s producer Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Stone Temple Pilots) for his work on the most recent Bruce Springsteen records, before raving about O’Brien’s job here.
Stewart also seems astounded by the fact that AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson is 61 years old (well, if he joined at age 33 in 1980…) but for the most part her take on the album vacillates from praise to disappointed acceptance, as she vouches for “its near-greatness” before rendering a final verdict of the album’s “15 songs, which is about five too many: After its pulverizingly pleasurable first half, it's all filler and very little killer.”
We wouldn’t limit it to the first half, though. We're gonna have to pass on this one.
Oh, and Allison: your music reviewing is a bit rusty. Read up on some old J.D. Considine. Thanks.
