This review covers the hard rock track AC/DC – Stiff Upper Lip.
This track was released in 2000 on the album Stiff Upper Lip.
The track starts with a high hat and guitars. Vocals then come in pretty quickly. The instruments drop out as the vocals then hit a line from the main chorus.
The instruments rejoin the track and the vocals continue. They go from verse to main chorus without much change in the backing elements.
From there, the vocals take the track into the next verse. After that, the vocals go back into the main chorus. This section is capped off with a guitar solo.
After that, the vocals take the track into the next verse (presumably). The vocals then hit the main chorus. A varied main chorus is then brought into the track. After that, the vocals repeat a line from the main chorus.
From there, the guitars lead the track out.
For a little context with this track, by the time this track was being released, Nu Metal was already entering the rock scene. Punk rock is already tearing things up. Goth rock is certainly holding it’s own here as well. Then, out of the blue, enter this track which has more relevance in the 80’s then in the 2000’s. This might not be so bad if it also, in the process, introduced something novel along the way. Unfortunately, that is something this track simply doesn’t do.
Instead, this track effectively takes the approach of never changing a thing, repackaging it, and then passing it off as something new. As a result, you wind up with something that seems a tad dated even though it’s, at the time, brand new.
In addition to this, some of the lyrics are garbled and hard to understand. Towards the end, I think I lost a whole verse because I couldn’t understand a single word in it.
The only thing I see this track having is a good hook. That hook, of course, being in the title. Is a good hook alone going to be enough to carry a track? In my view, not in this case. A lot of other bands are offering a lot of new ideas for music by this time and making the music scene actually quite interesting. It may be something for those nostalgic for a bygone era (not to mention the ensuing name recognition), but if you’re into a more new sound in music, this winds up getting lost in the shuffle.
So, as good of a hook this track offers, the track winds up sounding old and stale on arrival. Without any context to the era, I would have pegged this track as being released in the early 90’s at latest, not in the year 2000. So, I was quite surprised when I found out what the release year was for this track. For me, it’s a barely passable track. It’s not a flop, but it’s not much better then that.
Score
5.5/10
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
