Eamon Blog
Today's Shelf Pull: AC/DC, Ballbreaker
The Engine Room Gets Its Manners Back
AC/DC's Ballbreaker is on the shelf today, a 1995 Rock LP with Rick Rubin in the room, thick swinging riffs, close-miked grit and no patience for decoration.
Some records arrive with a concept. AC/DC arrive with a socket wrench, a rhythm section and the firm belief that if the engine is built properly nobody needs a lecture on aerodynamics.
Ballbreaker is that sort of record. The catalogue has it as AC/DC, Ballbreaker, LP, Rock, 1995, and that is already a fairly complete set of marching orders. It does not dress itself up as a delicate chamber piece. It squares its shoulders, checks the groove and gets on with the job.
The sleeve is doing more than decoration here. Blue light, stone weight, electricity, the band name in metallic letters and that lone figure at the centre of the storm. It looks like a power cut being used as a stage effect. You know before the needle drops that subtlety has been asked to wait outside with a cup of tea.
The catalogue notes call Ballbreaker a return to first principles after the glossy reach of the early nineties. That phrase suits it. This is not AC/DC reinventing the wheel. It is AC/DC putting the wheel back on properly, tightening the bolts and making sure the thing can take another hard corner.
