It's a Long Way to the Top...And AC/DC Knows How To Rock 'N' Roll
Written: Dec 03 '04
Product Rating:
Pros: most of the album is memorable, excellent, and worthy of repeat status
Cons: Little Lover and She's Got Balls aren't
The Bottom Line: For any other band, High Voltage would probably be their best record. For AC/DC, it's merely a second tier release, just falling short of being an outright classic.
MattA75's Full Review: High Voltage [Remaster] by AC/DC
For many, AC/DC's 1976 American debut High Voltage is a must own rock album, up there with the band's other great works: Powerage, Highway to Hell, and Back in Black.
For me though, High Voltage has always belonged more in the second tier of quality AC/DC releases, alongside discs such as Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Let There Be Rock. Actually made up of tracks from the band's first two Australian releases, High Voltage and TNT, many say High Voltage is perfect. But for me, I find myself bored as the album winds its way through its second half.
There are more than just a couple of out and out AC/DC classics here. T.N.T. may be the best known song from the band on this record, which is saying quite a bit. Nothing more than a mid-tempo plodding rocker that doesn't really gather much in the way of steam until the very end, T.N.T. was in many ways the band's quintessential anthem.
But if T.N.T. was to become the band's encore show stopper, there surely had to be a song here that would become the quintessential show opener. That song was also the song that opened this record. It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll) which to this day stands as one of the best songs, even if one of the most cliche'd, ever written about life on the road.
Another main ingredient of AC/DC's songs over the last 25+ years has been the double entendre, which, suffice to say, the band are the true masters of. Lead singer Bon Scott's exuberance and over the top delivery could make even the most innocent line the band ever wrote sound dirty. And no song in the band's cannon of songs quite matches up to the hilarious hijinx of The Jack, which might just feature Scott's most over the top performance ever, and a solid bit of guitar interplay from brothers Angus and Malcolm Young.
Of course, the people who have AC/DC all figured out, will immediately point to the similarities in songs like Rock 'N' Roll Singer and Live Wire as proof this band was a one trick pony. Not only would that be coming dangerously close to blasphemy, it would also not do justice to the job that the Young brothers do with regards to their riffs, solos, and noodling.
Alas, the album does lose steam over the course of the second half. Can I Sit Next To You Girl is built on a bluesy backbone of a riff, when it really should have been built on the riff that Angus plays coming out of each verse. This alone doesn't ruin the song for me; instead, what ruins the song for me is it's overbearing length. It feels as the song will never end, and I just find myself bored with it by the time all is said and done.
And the criticisms of AC/DC haters everywhere applies distinctly to Little Lover, which musically is a quieter version of The Jack, and vocally, it lacks the charisma of much of the rest of the material on this record. This is another track that just seems to be dragged forever into eternity. And for as good a song lyrically as She's Got Balls is, it bores the hell out of me musically, to the point where I feel my eyes getting heavy. That isn't what you expect from an AC/DC record, but it's the reaction I have to that song. It may be no surprise then, that both Little Lover and She's Got Balls were the only two songs from the original Australian release of High Voltage to make it onto the Stateside version. All of the other songs were from the TNT album, the band's sophomore effort in Australia.
The album does end on a high note though, with the band careening through the title track. It sounds like they turned the riff for It's a Long Way to the Top inside out, which works surprisingly well.
OK, so High Voltage isn't quite the 5 star classic that many would have you believe. It is, however, an extremely smart purchase for any rock and roll fan, and no AC/DC fan's collection could possibly be considered complete without it.
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