Description

AC/DC: Brian Johnson (vocals); Angus Young, Malcolm Young (guitar); Cliff Williams (bass); Phil Rudd (drums).
Recorded at The Warehouse Studio, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada.
With STIFF UPPER LIP, AC/DC continued down the same road of consistency driven by Angus Young’s workmanlike riffing and Brian Johnson’s raspy yowl. As it had done for the two decades leading up to this release, the Australian quintet ignored outside musical trends. AC/DC charts its own straight-and-narrow course with equal parts swagger (“House of Jazz”), grinding defiance (“Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll”), and smoldering menace (“Meltdown”).
As is the band’s wont, AC/DC seasons the set with a handful of tried-and-true hard-rock anthems, including the call-and-response “Satellite Blues” and the crackling tomcat-anthem title track. Not surprisingly, quite a bit of sexual innuendo bubbles up throughout STIFF UPPER LIP, particularly on “Come and Get It” and “Give It Up.” Ever the rock & roll traditionalists, AC/DC even includes an indictment of all things politically correct, “Damned.”