AC/DC: The Razors Edge [EPIC]

Why you'll love it

This 180g pressing was remastered from the original tapes at Sterling Sound. The album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 in the UK, and went multi-platinum in Canada, the US, Australia and Germany.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered from the original tapes
• Remastered at Sterling Sound

About the album

There's a fair bit of Vancouver in this one. After a turbulent late 80s, with Malcolm Young taking time off the road and drummer Simon Wright heading off to join Dio, AC/DC regrouped at Little Mountain Sound Studios with producer Bruce Fairbairn and engineer Mike Fraser, the same team behind big records for Aerosmith and Bon Jovi.

The Young brothers wrote every song themselves, a habit that stuck for the rest of the band's career, and new drummer Chris Slade gave them a heavier, tighter thump. "Thunderstruck" started as a little left-hand trick Angus stumbled on while fiddling about; Malcolm heard it, built a rhythm part underneath, and a few months later it was a stadium anthem. "Moneytalks" and "Are You Ready" followed it onto the radio, and "Fire Your Guns" keeps the pace up.

The Razors Edge put AC/DC back at the level of their Back in Black days and sent them round the world on a tour that started that November. That opening riff has since been played on more air guitars than any instrument maker could ever hope to invoice.

Also at Kops: more AC/DC on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia / Albert Productions (cat# E 80213), a reissue of the 1990 album.