I will choose to remember an otherwise horrific 2020 as the AC/DC in Employment Act ("A/D-EA"). I've been listening to AC/DC's tantalizing teasers, and then to Shot in the Dark since the day it was released. I tuned in in real-time to watch the premier of the Shot in the Dark video and listened to the entire PWR UP album on it's release date. Even generated myself a pretty cool logo. Try it.
I really believe that what this greatest-of-all-time band has done here is unprecedented. These guys are from 63 to 73 years old and sound like they just got together yesterday. The album doesn't sound in the least bit tired or hackneyed, and maybe even sounds fresher than some of their older stuff. And Shot in the Dark is right there with their all-time best. Sure, it all sounds like AC/DC, but - important message - that's a GOOD thing.
Getting Rudd back (from God-knows-where) was key. (No disrespect there to Slade, who's great.) And Brian Johnson at 73 might well sound as good or better than Brian Johnson at 30. (Sorry, Axl, but this is Brian's (and before him, Bon's) band when it comes to vocals.) Stevie is right there alongside of dear departed Uncle Malcolm (who lives on in the riffs used here) and Cliff is as always spot on (Thom, when ARE you going to get me to meet him?!?). And then there's Angus ('Nuff said).
But what's truly unprecedented is that this new music 50 years later is not some dinosaur-like homage to days gone by. No, it's a current release that's great in its own right. People from 8 to 80 are going to bang heads to this music, and it will soon become hard to remember what's from the fifth-plus decade and what's from earlier times gone by. There's no wistfulness for better times in these tunes; rather, there's just a celebration of some great new rock 'n' roll. With all due respect to the Stones (nice COVID song, I guess), no one's ever done anything quite like this at this stage of their careers and lives, and I wonder if anyone else ever will.
So, at Thanksgiving, let's give thanks to those who can show us that you never need to grow old in the head - age is just a number. Congress may not do much, but now we've got a whole brand-new A/D-EA.
Better than a walk in the park. Crank it (PWR it) UP, and rock on . . .
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