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Rating: We are in the early 2000s and the (no longer so young) AC/DC are not willing to hang up their guitars just yet, so they try to provide a worthy successor to the previous album "Ballbreaker" and come out with "Stiff Upper Lip," a work containing 12 tracks where half of them seem to be cookie-cutter made, a rather ugly cookie-cutter one might say, but let's take it one step at a time.
The album, at least on the cover, gives good hope: there is indeed a huge statue of Angus Young holding his trusty Gibson SG towering in the center of a metropolis with skyscrapers in the background, but never judge a book (or even less an album) by its cover! In fact, as you hopefully insert the CD into the player, you are left disappointed: the songs sound uninspired, almost as if the entire band had been chained to a table and forced to write the first three riffs that came to mind! The whole album suffers from excessive cloyingness and repetitiveness, in other words, by putting "Stiff Upper Lip" into your PC, mp3, CD player, or microwave (perhaps the most suitable place), you'll end up bored stiff like a condominium; that said, let's finally get to the heart of the matter:
The Tracks
The album immediately opens with the title track "Stiff Upper Lip", one of the few tracks on the album that does its job well: an apt opening riff by Angus followed by Brian Johnson's voice, the song presents itself as a pure Hard Rock piece but very reminiscent of Blues, as the "Accidiccian" tradition teaches, thus the guitar phrases are good and coherent with the compelling piece they accompany; the second track is "Meltdown", a mediocre and overly banal track that serves only as filler (in short, if they hadn't included it, it would have been the same, or perhaps even better); another track, another filler: I'm talking about "House of Jazz", a piece without bite and far too repetitive; moving on to "Hold Me Back", a track that begins with a fawning guitar riff that degenerates into 4 notes repeated until your scrotal sack separates, ultimately "Hold Me Back" is a dulcet and sugary piece that will undoubtedly raise your blood sugar level, avoid it like the plague!; continuing the race, we arrive at "Safe In New York City", a piece that quietly begins and then culminates in a Young solo, as usual, the watchword is repetitiveness, as dear Brian endlessly repeats the song's title, but ultimately the track barely manages to scrape a pass; the album continues with "Can't Stand Still", which was supposed to be the single but was ultimately replaced by "Satellite Blues", in the track, the band's Blues attitude takes the lead and finally one witnesses a good song, although not remotely reaching the levels of "High Voltage," which makes a good presence; it continues with "Can't Stop Rock 'N' Roll", where one finally sees an excellent song, that almost clashes with the ugliness of many other songs present in "Stiff Upper Lip," "Can't Stop Rock 'N' Roll" is the only track on the album that closely resembles the early albums of our favorite Australians and is worth listening to; the album continues with the equally good "Satellite Blues", a fun and fresh song that then slightly sinks into repetitiveness but still remains a track of fine quality; and so we come to the ninth track: "Damned", a piece that starts slowly and then flows into an engaging song, certainly not precisely a masterpiece but it is quite listenable (and very well); another turn, another track, and we arrive at "Come And Get It", sure, a funny piece because of the chorus in which Angus also participates vocally (an uncommon event since hearing Young hum is as rare as listening to Maggie Simpson entertain all of Springfield with a speech), but certainly not fundamental within the album; it continues with "All Screwed Up", a track neither here nor there where there is also here (stop it already!), a chorus endlessly chewed by the singer, summing up, it's a piece that adds and subtracts nothing from the album; the album concludes with "Give it Up", a piece with a good catchy chorus but nothing exceptional.
Rating
To wrap up this review, I decided to give a 3 (not a full one) to "Stiff Upper Lip," and I decided to give this rating because frankly, I always expect the best from AC/DC, but in this album, that did not happen, and the "best" turned into "repetitiveness," a word I have abused to describe this album; so if you see "Stiff Upper Lip" displayed in a record store (or at your trusted hardware store), I simply advise you to look elsewhere, maybe at other albums that really deserve the purchase, as in this "Stiff Upper Lip" the songs that deserve are about half or at most cut it in two pieces.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Stiff Upper Lip (03:34)
Well I was out on a drive
On a bit of a trip
Lookin' for thrills
To get me some kicks
Now I warn you ladies
I shoot from the hip
I was born with a stiff
Stiff upper lip
Like a dog in a howl
I bite everything
And I'm big and I'm drawl
And I'll ball your thing
I keep a stiff upper lip
And I shoot from the hip
I keep a stiff upper lip
And I shoot
And I shoot
Shoot from the hip
Yeah I shoot from the hip
Now listen
Well I'm workin' it out
And I've done everything
And I can't reform no
Can you feel my sting
Babe I keep a stiff upper lip
And I shoot from the hip, yeah
I keep a stiff upper lip
And I shoot
And I shoot
And i shoot shoot shoot
Shoot from the hip
Well I'm on the prowl
And I'll ball your thing
I got the teeth that'll bite you
Can you feel my sting
Babe I keep a stiff upper lip
And I shoot from the hip
I keep a stiff upper lip
And I shoot shoot shoot from the hip
I got a (stiff upper lip)
Better believe me (stiff upper lip)
Comin' down (stiff upper lip)
(Stiff upper lip)
Yeah i got a (stiff upper lip)
Stiff upper lip
Stiff upper lip
I got a stiff upper lip
I got a stiff upper lip
Stiff upper lip
Stiff upper lip
And I shoot
And I shoot
And I shoot
Shoot from the hip
02 Meltdown (03:41)
Now I'm gonna watch the fire (?)
Night time or day
Looking at a female
Hey, hey, hey
Gotta get up and come home
And run around the hay
Making her sweat,
Telling her to last all through the day
Man it's getting hot - hot - hot
I said man it's getting hot - hot - hot
It's getting hotter
And hotter
Man it's getting hot - hot
It's getting hot around here
It's a meltdown
It's a meltdown
I got a feeling in my bones
I been working my brains out
All night long
Stoke another fire
Take them hard up to the wall
Burn the longest log
Burn me down
Man it's getting hot - hot - hot
I said man it's getting hot - hot - hot
It's getting hotter, and hotter
Man it's getting hot, hot
It's getting hot around here
It's a meltdown
It's a meltdown
It's a meltdown
It's a meltdown
- solo -
Man it's getting hot - hot - hot
I said man it's getting hot - hot - hot
It's getting hotter
And hotter
And hotter
And hotter
It's a meltdown
It's a meltdown
It's a meltdown
It's a meltdown
It's a meltdown - Gonna burn
It's a meltdown - I said burn, burn
It's a meltdown
Meltdown
Meltdown
It's a meltdown
It's a meltdown
09 Damned (03:51)
Don't smoke don't fight don't light no cigarettes
Or else you'll wind up in the can
No jokes no rights sit tight don't fool around
You are a guest of Uncle Sam
Stand up look right don't slouch and stand at ease
Allow no sex above the knees
When I snap you jump into the master plan
I'll be damned
Well I'll be damned
I'll be damned if I drink or smoke
Damned if I steal your joke
I'll be damned if I go for broke
Damned if I do
Damned if I don't
Don't talk don't fool don't try to mess around
I'll make a monkey outta you
You sign your name right on that dotted line boy
I'll be damned
I'll be damned if I drink or smoke
Damned if I steal your joke
I'll be damned if I go for broke
Damned if I do
And damned if I don't, yeah
Come on
I'll be damned if I drink or smoke
Damned if I steal your joke
I'll be damned if I go for broke
I'm damned if I do
I'm damned if I don't
I'll be damned if I drink or smoke
Damned if I steal your joke
I'll be damned if I go for broke
I'm damned if I do
I'm damned if I don't
I'll be damned
I'll be damned
I'll be damned
I'll be damned
I'll be damned
I'll be damned
11 All Screwed Up (04:36)
Get ready
You think your kinda tough
You're walkin' kinda rough
When you want any more
You go fast wo' wo' wo'
Things go tough
And you strut your stuff
And I want your thing
Then you're out of luck
Yes you are
It's all screwed up
All screwed up
It's all screwed up
All screwed up
Take you out to kick some butt
Work you over screw you nuts
And when you can't take no more
Then she push you out that door
And things go hard
Like a dog gone mad
She can pack some punch
Then you're out to lunch, back at one
It's all screwed up
All screwed up
It's all screwed up
All screwed up
It's all screwed up
It's all screwed up
Cant' tell I'm comin'
All screwed up, yeah
I said it's all screwed up
All screwed up, yeah
Said you're all screwed up
All screwed up
It's all screwed up, yes it is
All screwed up
It's all screwed up
All screwed up
Screwed up
It's all screwed up
It's all screwed up
Said you think you got some balls
But you're always out to lunch
It's all screwed up
It's all screwed up
It's all screwed up, yes it is
All screwed up
It's all screwed up, yeah
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