Back in Black Review

Five months after Bon Scott died, AC/DC released a record in an all black sleeve and opened it with a funeral bell. What follows is the most economical hard rock album of its era. Mutt Lange's production leaves wide gaps around every instrument, so Malcolm Young's rhythm guitar lands like a slammed door and Phil Rudd's drums sit dead centre, never hurried and never busy. Brian Johnson, hired weeks after the funeral, screams in a register that should not survive ten songs and somehow does.

Hells Bells, Shoot to Thrill, the title track and You Shook Me All Night Long are riffs first and songs second, which is exactly the point. The lyrics are the weak leg, and badly so: the double entendres are schoolboy grade and a couple of songs are plainly leering, which is why that mark sits two grades under the overall. It barely matters while the record is playing, because the whole thing runs on restraint, space and timing rather than volume. Generations of bands have tried to copy it since and discovered that simple is the hardest thing to do well.