Album Review: AC/DC – Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976)

Overview: 

One of the knocks on AC/DC throughout the years is that the music is very derivative of itself.  The band is not going to stray too far from what they do best, which is why all of the Bon Scott songs sound like they could come off any album, regardless the era (even though his era was short) and the Brian Johnson songs follow that same pattern.  I personally don’t care that much as the catalogue is so large that I usually just shuffle them all on Google Play anyway, but I completely understand the argument.  This album follows that mold very closely, but is a bit more cohesive in my opinion, with less filler.

Tracks you may know: 

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – It’s not as overplayed as T.N.T. but it’s damn close.  Still, a great opening song for the album.

Big Balls – The song that makes every teenage boy giggle until he’s blue in the face.  Bon Scott packs more innuendo into this one song than the rest of the songs in the whole AC/DC catalogue combined.  It still holds up well even if it sounds sillier the older you get.

Tracks you should know:

Rocker – I love the beat, the speed, the guitar, it’s all there.  It sounds like something Motorhead would play, just without Lemmy’s growl.

My personal favorite:

Ride On – This could be the slowest song in the entire discography, but it is so smooth, so rich of a blues tune that I can’t help but stop what I’m doing when it comes on and just listen to it.  This may in fact be my favorite AC/DC song of all time (and that’s saying a lot as I am a pretty hefty supporter of the Brian Johnson era as the best era of AC/DC).

Album rating: 

It’s a great sophomore effort and produced some of the best songs of the entire catalogue.  There is very little filler as even songs like “There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’” and “Love at First Feel” are quality tunes.

9/10