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List Price: $7.98 | | Label: Atlantic / Wea
Salesrank: 348505
Released: September 20, 1994 |
| Our Price: $14.99 |
| Used Price: $0.95 |
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| Media: Audio Cassette |
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Flick of the Switch Track Listing:
1. Rising Power
2. This House Is on Fire
3. Flick of the Switch - AC/DC, AC/DC, AC/DC
4. Nervous Shakedown
5. Landslide
6. Guns for Hire
7. Deep in the Hole
8. Bedlam in Belgium
9. Badlands
10. Brain Shake
Editorial Review:
Digitally remastered European vinyl LP pressing of this 1983 release from the Australian Hard Rockers, reissued to coincide with their 2008 studio release and world tour. Eight tracks. Sony/BMG.
Flick of the Switch Reviews:
Old School 
2009-07-10 - good ol' Angus and his SG... old school rock the way we learned from AC/DC
Quickdraw on the floor...bigshot!... 
2009-01-18 - AC/DC's `Flick of the Switch' was initially a disappointment upon its release in August of 1983. Sales wise it paled in comparison to its immediately predecessors `Back in Black' and `For Those About to Rock' but in terms of overall quality it has been given an historical revision. I believe it is a better album in terms of sound quality and songs then `FTAR'. What hurt `Flick' in the marketplace was the lack of an obvious anthem, especially compared to `FTAR'. Taking over the production duties from Mutt Lange, Angus and Malcolm Young cranked up the guitars to make this lp the band's heaviest since the days of Vanda/Young. Key songs include the title track which although not an anthem, is a tour-de-force example of the power of AC/DC, "Guns for Hire", "Rising Power" and "Bedlam in Belgium". "Badlands" is an underrated song though the lyrics are repetitive compared to "Guns". There is a good portion of filler on the record, can't say I'm a big fan of the faster tunes (both original album side closers) but no more than the previous record. AC/DC fans could do much worse than making `Flick of the Switch' a purchase to fill out the catalogue, rarely has AC/DC been heavier! Blow you sky high!
One of my favorite AC/DC albums, actually
2008-06-19 - After the pomp and circumstance of For Those About to Rock, the group cut the crap, came back with a whole new arsenal of cool riffs, and proceeded to keep on rockin' the house. It didn't sell too well because of the lack of a huge hit single, but hey, it's good! I'd say it's Brian's best album with the band, other than Back in Black. And it's definitely a high point for Angus - his solos on every song are spectacular, but my favorites come from "Rising Power," the title song, "Guns for Hire" (which also has a pretty sweet hammer-on/pull-off intro), and "Deep in the Hole". And Brian's vocals are at their most powerful: listen to him on "Nervous Shakedown" or "Landslide," one of the fastest songs the group has ever done. He sounds great! Malcolm's really performing also, churning out memorable, hard-hitting riffs on every single song, with the blues "Badlands" arguably having the best on the album. And how about "Bedlam in Belgium"? One of the finest AC/DC songs, period, regardless of who's singing it. Everything great about this album is firmly in place and in fact excelling expectations. And the lyrics are actually good, by AC/DC's standards. Clever title, too. Speaking of lyrics, they're much more mature than usual - a lot of commentary about the general insanity of the world, protesting all the violence in the world. Or at least I think they're protesting, because as you'd expect from AC/DC's lyrics, they're sarcastic and exaggerated. I wouldn't call a single one of these songs, other than "Bedlam in Belgium," a classic, but it's all it needs to be: a collection of solidly enjoyable songs. And, most importantly, they're having fun again, here in the wake of the "We are rock messiahs!" attitude of For Those About to Rock. "Brain Shake" is just a blast, and "This House is on Fire" is so entertaining I don't even care that the chorus melody is taken from "Hells' Bells". So I'm gonna defiantly give this a high score. How about that? And I used to think it was terrible, too! Which is why I deleted my old one-star review. Time changes everything...
They should've stopped after this one.
2008-02-07 - In my opinion, this is the last AC/DC album that 'made sense'. What do I mean?.......The riffs, rhythm and music altogether is solid and memorable.
You can tell the difference between music that was written while the artists were still brimming with talent and had that natural gift and when those admirable qualities were waning or completely gone. Well, when they wrote and peformed the tracks on this gem of an album, they certainly still had IT.
Additionally, Johnson's voice was still young and strong as on BIB and FTATR. As has been mentioned here, the sound and specifically the guitairs have a rawer, less refined tone than usual.......This is a good thing.
Flick is one of those albums that seem to get better the more you listen to it. Powerful and possessing the musical quality of most any of their previous albums, Flick offers early 80s hard rock that far surpasses anything called 'hard rock' or metal that's coming out these days.
As for albums released after this one, the band seemed to begin to run out of ideas. On these later albums, the quality of the songs goes downhill as does Johnson's singing ability. Also, some of the later stuff is just kind of juvenile; I mean, "Ballbreaker" and "blow up your video"?......C'mon.
The album gets 4 stars because the last 2 tunes are weaker than the rest of the album. That being said, it is still a very strong piece of musical work that will provide lots of listening pleasure to anyone who likes AC/DC or quality hard rock.
Third best they've done...
2007-03-04 - Great hooks on this album.
It was probably less successful commercially because it's sonically identical to Back in Black and For this About to Rock; the band started to sound repetitive. But as it stands alone, Flick of the Switch has some super riffs,chord sequences and that cool guitar syncopation that defines AC/DC. Plus the Young bro's guitar tone is as great as ever and Johnson's voice is at full wack.
My second favourite with Johnson after Back in Black, with only Powerage being better from the Scott era. Overall, I reckon "Flick" is at least as good or better than the much more popular "Highway to Hell", "Let there be Rock" and "Dirty Deeds".
