Acdc Music:

Flick of the Switch Track Listing:
1. Rising Power
2. This House Is on Fire
3. Flick of the Switch
4. Nervous Shakedown
5. Landslide
6. Guns for Hire
7. Deep in the Hole
8. Bedlam in Belgium
9. Badlands
10. Brain Shake

Flick of the Switch Reviews:
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".

really solid--doesn't reach classic status, but comes pretty close
2005-09-13 - Originally released in August of 1983, "Flick of the Switch" is a damn fine AC/DC record, and if you love the band, I really can't understand not digging it.

In the liner notes for the 2003 remastered version of "Flick...", Malcolm Young explains that the band wanted to get back-to-basics with this record, which they produced themselves, and you can see what he means--the album has a real live-in-the-studio sound to it, with guitars exploding out of the speakers, plus all but two of the tracks are under 4 minutes, and they've completely ditched the special effects a la the bell tolls on "Hells Bells" or the cannons on "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)". Also, Brian Johnson's vocals are at their gloriously piercing best throughout.

The liner notes in the 2003 reissue also state that the album is "remarkably varied". Is this a joke or what? One thing that there sure as hell isn't a lot of on this album is variety. The boys do a nice job of mixing up the tempos--you have your slower paced tunes ("Rising Power", "Nervous Shakedown", "Deep In The Hole"), medium-fast tunes (title track, "Guns For Hire", "Bedlam In Belgium"), and fast tunes ("Landslide", "Brain Shake")--but that hardly makes for a "remarkably varied" batch of songs. One thing I won't argue about though is that the album is indeed very consistent.

The album starts off with "Rising Power" which is one of those great AC/DC stompers, with a brilliant sequence of kickass riffs. Likewise, "Nervous Shakedown" has another great sequence of riffs and builds spellbinding tension before breaking into the call-and-response chorus. The title track, with its sly guitar licks, is a ton of fun. The boogying "Landslide" is one of the most wildly exciting rock songs ever--it's a furious, fast-paced thrill ride with an ultra-catchy rapid-fire vocal hook leading into the chorus, and blistering guitar soloing from Angus; if this song doesn't get your heart racing, I don't know what the hell will. Also irresistible are "Deep In The Hole", with its cry-of-desperation chorus; and "Bedlam In Belgium", with its clever almost-but-not-quite-synchronized rhythm guitar parts and its spiritedly malevolent chorus.

As solid as the album is, it's not a bonafide classic. "This House Is On Fire" is a middling rewrite of "Hells Bells". "Guns For Hire" sounds a bit rushed-through and underwritten, although there's no denying that it's got a hell of a main riff. The bluesy "Badlands" lazily recycles the "Bad Boy Boogie" riff, although there is an ear-catching bit in the riff just before the guitar solo. The album closing "Brain Shake" is a really cool tune that seems to borrow some of its riffery straight from the Beatles "Helter Skelter", but the repetitive "joy to ride" 'hook' gets to be a little annoying, as does the heavy repetition of the title.

You've got to be nuts to think that this album marks the beginning of a major artistic decline for AC/DC. If you actually enjoy the watered-down, Foreigner-style arena-rock of songs like "Touch Too Much" and "You Shook Me All Night Long", then it makes sense that you'd find this album disappointing. But the true AC/DC aren't about lame cockrock; they're about ass-kicking hard rock, and "Flick of the Switch" does a very fine job of capturing the true essence of the band--this album is a must for any true AC/DC fan.

Raw, Hard and Rocking
2005-07-13 - Like Powerage, this is a great AC/DC album that hasn't gotten all the priase it deserves. It's the last album in which Brian Johnson has the full power of his voice and it shows the band making a definite shift from the bombast of "For Those About To Rock...", to a stripped down, straight-up, no nonsense affair. One could say all the songs sound alike (even by AC/DC standards) but that's THE POINT. Look at the simple black & white sketch cover and the running time of the songs/album. It's supposed to just hit you hard and get out of dodge...very punk rock aesthetic actually....although even the best punk never had a nasty groove like these cuts. Imagine if the song "Back In Black" just kept hitting you and hitting you, until you stuck up your hands and screamed, "I give up! You guys are the gods of rock." That's Flick of the Switch.

The last GREAT AC/DC album and easily the second best (right after Back In Black) of the Brian Johnson era. Buy it, crank it up and rock out!