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List Price: $11.98 | | Label: Atlantic / Wea
Salesrank: 181236
Released: October 25, 1990 |
| Our Price: $31.93 |
| Used Price: $3.49 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Editorial Review:
2003 remastered reissue of 1978 album packaged in a digipak with 16 page full color booklet containing all original album art, many unpublished photos, classic memorabilia, and liner notes. Epic.
Description of Powerage:
AC/DC's fourth album is the lull after the triumph of Let There Be Rock and before the mighty peaks of If You Want Blood You've Got It and Highway to Hell. Powerage contains all the familiar AC/DC trademarks: Bon Scott's rather less than Yeatsian lyrical vision ("Rock & Roll Damnation," "Up to My Neck in You"), Angus Young's brilliantly minimal guitar playing, a rhythm section as relentless and efficient as an infantry regiment, and the astute production of former Easybeats Harry Vanda and George Young; however, it lacks a truly transcendent moment, a "Whole Lotta Rosie" or a "T.N.T." Of course, even an average AC/DC album is an eloquent lesson in the fundamentals of rock & roll, and by that token Powerage still blows most opposition out of the water. Bon Scott's exultant declaration of working-class solidarity, "Riff Raff," is worth six Bon Jovi albums on its own. --Andrew Mueller
Powerage Reviews:
RIFF-RAFF 
2009-12-10 - This is AC/DC's lowest selling album in the U.S. As an AC/DC fan for 30 years. "Powerage" is a little heavier on the blues influence than any of the other albums. Every song is a winner. Anyone who likes AC/DC should have this in their collection.
Overlooked Classic 
2009-08-21 - Ask any AC/DC fanatic what their favorite album is, more than likely you'll hear Powerage. It's a very good album that was unfortunately left in the wake of several great ones ("Let There Be Rock", "If You Want Blood, You Got It", "Highway To Hell" and "Back In Black"). For that reason the album remains unfairly tagged as the group's Bon Scott era runt of the litter, inciting both praise and support from fans, including rock royalty Keith Richards.
Hearing Powerage for the first time feels like you've unearthed a rare gem. The album is the band's first truly accomplished work and serves as a bridge between their cult status and international fame. But it doesn't really kick in until the middle, featuring the killer combination of "Riff Raff", "Sin City" and "What's Next To The Moon". Which may explain its lack of popularity, or perhaps it's unfair status as below average - three towering songs that should have led off the album are bookended by several good ones.
But so what? Rogue screamer Bon Scott is in his excessive prime, the rhythm section featuring new bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd is a metronome disguised as a wrecking ball and the simple but bludgeoning guitar work by the Angus brothers is a profound study in rock `n' roll minimalism. Considering the overplay of so many AC/DC albums, it's nice to know you have a classic piece of the band that feels like your own.
Rock N Roll ownage!
2009-08-14 - This album is truly a classic and one of AC/DC's all time best efforts. It;s albums like this that make ROCK N ROLL the best music on earth and makes it even harder to decide which AC/DC singer you like best. True riffage \m/
Apparently Keith Richards favourite AC/DC album...extremely raw 
2009-07-20 -
I mean Keef Richards, The Rolling Stones' geetar man. This is pretty much the factoid that made me want to buy this album, as otherwise the track listing held no appeal to me at all. I'm a bigger fan of AC/DC than of The Stones, but his word made taking a punt on this album seem worth it.
To my mind, this is AC/DC at their rawest and most unrelentingly aggressive. The guitars have the sound of angle grinders on this album and have a unity of sound. That's all fine, but the main reason I can't give this album more than 3/5 is the fact that for the first time, perhaps, it lacks the kind of anthemic, iconic or stadium rocking song that the band does better than anyone else. Normally with an AC/DC album I can give at least one song a big tick, signifying that it is a classic by the band. Can't do that here. So, I'll have to say that this album might be appeal more to people who are into really raw and aggressive guitar music...say fans of raw punk or thrash metal. Lead guitarist Angus Young has said that this album is a bit of a lost classic in his view. I don't see it that way. If you have never heard an AC/DC album you like, then maybe this is the kind of album which you might like.
Here's my thoughts on the tracks, starting with the best one, in my view, which is:
Down payment blues - has a pulsing riff which sounds like it was recorded in a steel water tank or something. Has bass and lead guitar solo-ing. The songwriting is particularly good and has a grungy theme.
Best of the rest:
Sin city - not a bad riff in its favour, and has a very nice bass line in the middle. Lead guitar features as well.
Gone shootin' - has a good psycho riff in its favour (stabbing sound) and the lead guitar work is good.
The rest:
Rock'n'roll damnation - the riff reminds me of Bowie's "Jean genie" and Foreigner's "Hot blooded"...there is a line about his temperature in the song. Sometimes the guitar sounds a bit like a harmonica, if that makes sense. Good drum outro, which is unusual, in that normally the drumming in this band is of the "streak and three veg" variety.
Gimme a bullet - angle grinder sounding guitars. Bass.
Riff raff - sounds to me if some of the distortion in this song is unintentional...i.e. the studio not being able to capture the sounds the band was making. Lyrically, Bon Scott pounds out the title. Bass.
Kicked in the teeth - has a Led Zeppelin vibe to it, I think. Interesting lead guitar texture in one section.
What's next to the moon - just made a note of this song for mentioning someone called "Casey Jones", which is obscure to me. Might have to look them up.
I made no notes on "What's next to the moon" and "Up to my neck in you". Nothing much grabbed my attention in them.
This isn't a bad album, it just lacks the kind of killer songs that the band is known for. And the band has never sounded this in your face either. Basically, I think that this album will either appeal to people who don't like the kind of AC/DC albums I love, or who like raw genres like punk or thrash etc. In one of the sleeve notes to an AC/DC album I've recently bought, it was mentioned that the band was considered punk by the British media. That was news to me. Perhaps the kind of laddish chants you found in songs such as "T.N.T" brought that judgement out of the music media. In any case, since Powerage was released in the wake of the punk movement which erupted the previous year, perhaps Powerage is sort of AC/DC's punk album. It just lacks the catchy punk riffs that the genre was creating. Over a year earlier, Australian pioneers of punk, The Saints, released "(I'm) Stranded" which also had egregious raw guitar sounds. Maybe AC/DC took that from their album?
For the ultimate Australian pub rock album, I'd recommend AC/DC's "Let there be rock". Otherwise, for their best anthemic albums, something like:
Back in black
T.N.T. (still available, new too. "High voltage" is the international version of this album)
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap (ideally, you want the Australian version which had "Jailbreak" on it, a classic)
Razors Edge.
Other genres which may appeal, if you like the rawness of this album:
The Saints: (I'm) Stranded. Australian punk pioneers. Proto thrash/speed punk-metal type tracks.
Slayer: Undisputed attitude. Punk covers by extreme speed metallers. Some classic punk tunes unearthed.
Metallica: Master of puppets. The ultimate thrash metal album, probably.
Nirvana: Nevermind. Has some very hard punk type songs on it.
One Of The Greatest Forgotten Albums In Rock and Roll History
2009-07-11 - I am blown away by just how great AC/DC was in the mid to late seventies prior to Highway to Hell and Back in Black. The remastered sound quality is out of this world good and Bon Scott and the guys never sounded better. I recently bought the entire collection of AC/DC US studio releases and the 1978 release titled Powerage is one of the greatest forgotten albums in the history of Rock and Roll. From Gimme A Bullet to Riff Raff to Sin City everything rocks big time. I highly recommend you give it a listen. I find it incredible that it was not a bigger commercial success. I've been blasting a lot of AC/DC in my car lately driving quite speedily and I've loved every minute of it. I've never understood truly why a guy like Bon Scott is so missed by fans but you get it when you hear more than just Highway to Hell like I had up until now. Prior to his death the band was a cerebral hard rocking blues band and after his death they took a turn away from their bluesy heavy roots and got lost for quite some time in a sexually charge scream fest. I do love much of the Brian Johnson era even enjoying Sink the Pink from 1985s Fly on the Wall immensely but after 1981s For Those About To Rock they got lost in an endless cycle of songs that literally obsessed with women and sex and the lyrics stopped being as artistic and became downright silly. 1990s The Razor's Edge reaffirmed Brian Johnson's worth and AC/DCs ability to revive itself from near dead with the hits Thunderstuck and Moneytalks. Powerage is AC/DC at its best at a time when it was the songs and nothing else that mattered most to a band finding its way to the top. Indeed it was a long way but they did it the right way whether or not the buying public in 1978 understood that.
