AC/DC Album By Album Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by erikdavid5000, Apr 5, 2020.

  1. daltieri

    daltieri The 80`s kick ass

    Location:
    Mexico City
    One thing I forgot to tell in my post is that this album is very heavy on background vocals from Malcolm and Cliff, one clear example is this song. Thunderstruck and Are you ready come to mind also, but basically most of the album is like that. Gotta love those background vocals!!
     
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  2. 905

    905 Senior Member

    Location:
    Midwest USA
    Yes, I love the background vocals. And whenever there's percussion (usually maracas)in AC DC songs, that's great too.
    When I got all of the albums recently, and became a more than casual fan, it was a nice surprise to hear how much "color" some of the songs had.
     
  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Lets Make It
    Nice punch in.
    We move into a groove. Melodically is sounds almost like a sixties track.
    This isn't too bad, it is enjoyable enough, but feels a little like filler.
    The opening chord pattern is cool, and it makes a return mid song.
    We get a key change from there into a lead break from Angus. The key changes back up and the chorus comes back.

     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Goodbye and Good Riddance To Bad Luck
    This is somewhat reminiscent of something from the For Those About To Rock period, and then moves into a different pattern.
    It ends up being a pretty good track, with some nice sections.
    I like the little rhythmic device they use to lead into the lead break, and Angus delivers a nice lead break.
    A pretty good album track

     
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  5. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    If You Dare
    We open up almost like a blues track of sorts, and burst into a nice change.
    This is a nice change up.
    I think this track lifts the tail end of the album a bit. It has a bit of something different to offer and comes over as a bit of fun.
    Some interesting changes and fills give this a bit of life for me, that the last two tracks were lacking.
    Good closing track

     
  6. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    A little too repetitive for my likes, the vocals were also over cooked even for AC/DC . imo
     
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  7. Jem

    Jem Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lathbury
    Suffers from production/mix issues and a lack of Rudd groove which is a shame as this could have been hit single.
     
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  8. Jem

    Jem Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lathbury
    Good solid song. Decent lyrics. Inspired by Mal's tough times the previous tour.
     
  9. Jem

    Jem Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lathbury
    A song I would have left off the record. Feels like an underwritten track to my ears.
     
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  10. daltieri

    daltieri The 80`s kick ass

    Location:
    Mexico City
    Second favorite song of the album
    Great closer, leaves you wanting for more in my opinion
     
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  11. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Ballbreaker

    [​IMG]
    Studio album by
    AC/DC
    Released
    26 September 1995
    Recorded 1994–95
    Studio Record Plant Studios, New York City, New York Ocean Way Studios, Los Angeles, California
    Genre Hard rock blues rock
    Length 49:47
    Label EastWest, Albert, Epic
    Producer Rick Rubin, Mike Fraser

    Ballbreaker is the 13th studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It was the band's twelfth internationally released studio album and the thirteenth to be released in Australia. It was released in 1995 and was re-released in 2005 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series.

    Ballbreaker marked the return of drummer Phil Rudd, who had played on all AC/DC albums from their Australian album T.N.T. (1975) to Flick of the Switch (1983). Rudd had left during the Flick of the Switch sessions due to drug problems and his incompatibility with Malcolm Young.[1] According to Arnaud Durieux's book AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, Rudd attended AC/DC's show in Auckland in November 1991 and, after a friendly meeting with the band backstage, made an "open-ended pitch" to rejoin if anything changed with the band's current drummer Chris Slade. Durieux reports that the band eventually invited Rudd to rejoin and he accepted in August 1994, much to the chagrin of Slade,[2] who had been recording demos with the band in London.[3] Slade told Rock Hard France in June 2001 that he was so disappointed and disgusted that he did not touch his drum kit for three years.[citation needed] Slade would eventually rejoin the band for their performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards Ceremony and the 2015 Rock or Bust World Tour following Rudd's legal issues involving illegal drug possession and threatening to kill his former personal assistant, both of which forced him out of the band a second time.

    Ballbreaker is also significant for being the only AC/DC album produced by Rick Rubin. Rubin had been a long-time fan of the band; former AC/DC engineer Tony Platt recalls overhearing the producer working with the Cult on their 1987 LP Electric:

    Rick Rubin was recording the Cult in Studio A and we [Platt and the studio engineers] stood in the airlock just outside the studio. A snatch of Highway to Hell would get played and then a snatch from Back in Black and then a snatch of Led Zeppelin, and we thought, "What the hell's going on there?" [A studio assistant] said, "Well, he's getting the guitar sounds from Back in Black, the drum sound from Highway to Hell and the voice sound from Led Zeppelin!" Literally, as he was mixing he was getting a guitar sound on the Cult and then comparing it directly with the guitar sound that he wanted to get from Back in Black. The same with all the other instruments.[4]

    Rubin's first assignment with AC/DC had been "Big Gun," which appeared on the soundtrack for the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Last Action Hero. The song was a hit, becoming Billboard's #1 rock track and hit #5 on the Canadian charts.[5]

    The album took five months to record. Production started at the Record Plant Studios in New York City, but the band became dissatisfied with the sound there and moved to Los Angeles' Ocean Way Studios.[6] Getting the right drum sound at the Record Plant had proved impossible, with Rubin even isolating the drums in a tent in the studio and lining the walls and ceiling with material to soak up the extra sound the room generated.[7] Although the band was immediately satisfied with the Ocean Way Studios, Rubin and Malcolm Young clashed over the album's direction, with Rubin demanding as many as 50 retakes on some songs, and rumours persist that Rubin was often absent from the studio and left the band to their own devices while he reportedly saw to the recording of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' One Hot Minute album at the same time.[8] In a 1995 interview with Guitar World, Young played down the tension between him and Rubin, although he did admit to Le Monde in October 2000, "Working with him was a mistake." Mike Fraser was also credited for recording, engineering and mixing the album. Marvel Comics contributed to Ballbreaker's cover art.

    Production
    1. "Hard as a Rock" 4:31
    2. "Cover You in Oil" 4:32
    3. "The Furor" 4:10
    4. "Boogie Man" 4:07
    5. "The Honey Roll" 5:34
    6. "Burnin' Alive" 5:05
    7. "Hail Caesar" 5:14
    8. "Love Bomb" 3:14
    9. "Caught with Your Pants Down" 4:14
    10. "Whiskey on the Rocks" 4:35
    11. "Ballbreaker" 4:31


    Year Chart Peak position

    1995-1996 Australian Albums (ARIA)[15] 1
    Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[16] 2
    Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[17] 3
    Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[18] 4
    Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[19] 28
    German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[20] 4
    Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[21] 4
    New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[22] 2
    Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[23] 1
    Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[24] 3
    Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[25] 1
    UK Albums (OCC)[26] 6
    US Billboard 200[27] 4
    2008 Japanese Albums (Oricon)[28] 194
    -------------------------------------------------------------
    Apologies for all the wiki info, but essentially I am so far out of my depth with the albums from here that there is little I can add in terms of information.

    I did actually see Acdc live around this time, I think it was this tour. It was the tour that started in Perth Western Australia ... It is a strange thing getting the first show of a tour, it seems like it is a great honour, but essentially it is like a warm up.... The best shows to get are normally about a month in, when a band has their rhythm, and they aren't burnt out yet.
    To some degree it was disappointing, because Angus was always my number one draw to the band, and he wasn't quite in the groove. Nothing was particularly bad or anything, it just had that "we are just getting it together here" feel.
    The surprises to me were the drum sound was sensational, and Brian Johnson was way better live than I expected him to be......

    So really it is up to you guys with this album. I know a couple of songs, and I like them well enough, but I am certainly not fluent with them.

    Please give us your thoughts on this album, so that anyone following along has something to sink their teeth into, and tomorrow we'll hit the first couple of songs.

    Cheers
    Mark
     
  12. Ghost of Ziggy

    Ghost of Ziggy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hell
    I thought Ballbreaker was a bit of comeback, especially as I didn’t like The Razor’s Edge at all -apart from a couple of tracks. I liked the fact Rudd was back, I also liked the vibe of the sleezy lyrics, which was a conscious attempt to get back to the Bon style of songs. I bought the cd the day it was released, I just regret not going to the tour, can’t remember why I didn’t, probably due to funds.
     
  13. Kim Olesen

    Kim Olesen Gently weeping guitarist.

    Location:
    Odense Denmark.
    The first album after i got into ACDC that i didn’t buy. Only about 5 years ago did i buy it. One by one the songs are ok. But as a whole i find it lacking. Particularly in the vocal melodies. It is like they decided that all songs should have verses where the vocal melody centered around the root with diversions to the minor third. Some memorable choruses here and there though.
     
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  14. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    I don’t know Ballbreaker either, but it is interesting to read about their troubles with producer Rick Rubin. When U2 worked with Rubin perhaps 8-10 years later the complaint from the band was that he pretty much expected them to show up with completed songs - no room for endless studio noodling as U2 tends to do. On the other hand, with AC/DC one complaint seems to be all the time it took to get the sounds set up for recording and then demanding endless retakes. This sounds like the opposite complaint from U2!

    I do know “Big Gun” though and I like that song a lot. If it represents their first outing with Rubin then I’d have to say it’s pretty successful. Big Gun got a lot of radio play where I lived and I thought it was a witty return to basics after The bands had gone more in a glossier direction with The Razors Edge. I listened to Big Gun a couple times over the weekend and I liked the sound Rubin achieved on that one: it’s the return of the hard ‘n dirty sound AC/DC used to have.
     
  15. Jem

    Jem Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lathbury
    Anything with The Rudd will automatically feel better and that is the case with BB. Rubin didn't work well with the boys and didn't do a good job with the mix being far too dry this reduces the flow for some of the tracks. Highlights for me are The Furor, Hail Caesar, Whiskey On The Rocks and Ballbreaker, lots of other good songs as well. The tour was absolutely brilliant (I even caught Down Payment Blues in Bordeaux) with the tracks played live really coming over well particularly Ballbreaker which was an absolute monster and it remains completely beyond me why it ever fell from the set.

     
  16. Haggischomper

    Haggischomper Scottish AF

    Location:
    Aurora, IL
    Thoroughly enjoyed them on this tour but I've never owned (or even heard) this album
     
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  17. daltieri

    daltieri The 80`s kick ass

    Location:
    Mexico City
    Phill Rudd is back and you can tell. The drums sound amazing in this album but, and this is a big but, in my opinion Rubin was a mistake. The songs the boys created kick ass but sound neutered, he managed to get a great drum sound but at the same time the songs lack force and emotion, they just never lift up, something went wrong. It´s the dark AC DC album, the vibe in my opinion is very dense, the band is about rocking and partying, good times, but this record misses that spark, thanks to Rubin´s production. I read somewhere years ago that Rubin even told the boys to use their vintage amps so they can get the old AC DC sound, well at the end of it all seems to me it didn´t work.
    Highlights for me are Cover you in Oil, The Furor, The Honey Roll, Hail Cesar, Caught with your pants down and Ballbreaker. By the way I hate the song Big Gun. I´m glad is not on the album.
    Great album cover though.
    This is one of the records of the band that I don´t reach that often. Overrated Rubin neutered it big time.
    Nothing else to say here.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2020
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  18. Ghost of Ziggy

    Ghost of Ziggy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hell
    I really liked the Ballbreaker artwork.
     
  19. drift

    drift Forum Resident

    Location:
    Peoria, IL
    I was pumped for revisiting Live, it was my first AC/DC album! This will be my first time hearing Ballbreaker, I'm looking forward to that. After Live, it's all new to me except the Stiff Upper Lip album.
     
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  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Apologies, was Live, supposed to have been next?

    I'm flyin' by the seat of my pants here.
    We can run through that next. Is that cool?
     
  21. drift

    drift Forum Resident

    Location:
    Peoria, IL
    Cool with me! Thank you. I'm just happy to be along for the ride.
     
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  22. knutmh

    knutmh Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Norway
    Attended the Stockholm concert in april '96. My first proper rock concert, and it was a blast. I traveled from the west coast of Norway to Stockholm since i had a relative working there at that time, so he got hold of tickets and i flew over to visit and go to the show.

    It was loud, and i loved it, the only drawback was that we were quite a bit away from the stage, but it was a great experience still.

    [​IMG]
     
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  23. drift

    drift Forum Resident

    Location:
    Peoria, IL
    Sweet! Do you remember who the special guests were? Was Globen a band?
     
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  24. Jem

    Jem Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lathbury
    The original album cover by David McMackem was brilliant:

    Imgur
     
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  25. Jem

    Jem Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lathbury
    Think Zero Nine supported in Scandinavia. The Wildhearts did the rest of Europe I think. Sepultura joined the bill in Bordeaux.
     
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