Review Summary: Raucous, raw, hard rocking and criminally underrated.
Blow up your video, it cannot be that good I hear you scream - it did lose out on metal/hard rock grammy in 1989 to none other than the Flute fanciers Jethro Tull. That is the definition of miscarriage justice if you ever needed it. Blow Up Your Video is stellar AC/DC which is amongst their largely overlooked and underrated albums of the late 80s (Fly on The Wall and Flick of The Switch being the others).
Heatseeker opens the album at a blistering pace, becoming a staple at concert and a top 20 U.K. hit. That raw, rocking, raucous style continues with the epic That's the Way I wanna Rock n Roll, the tough talking Meanstreak and the sex laden and brilliantly subtle Go Zone and Kissin' Dynamite. This album demonstrates AC/DC's in you face music style, beating around the bush is against the rules which makes for a hugely fun 40 minutes. With the best moment coming in the name of Two's Up - a song so good it must have been sent straight from the heavens. The best song about threesomes I have ever heard.
This album, released in 1988, must have been a soothing tonic to the Sickly Sweet MTV rock that was dominating the charts at the time - Bon Jovi amongst others. With AC/DC being anti glam metal, with Angus saying 'We didn't want to part of the mainstream rock out there. We never wanted to be packaged and sold. We never went out there to sell our souls.' Listening to this album, this becomes abundantly clear. Like Motorhead - they were going to keep on delivering their tried and tested sound, and bugger to the fashions of the time. Which will endear fans but will not win over doubters.
4/5 - For fans of AC/DC and hard rock it's a must buy. Raucous, raw, hard rocking and criminally underrated. Yes it is not as good as Back in Black and Highway to Hell, but it is certainly up there and for only £4.50 on Amazon you can't go wrong!
