UMUR
"For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" is the 8th full-length studio album by Australian hard rock/heavy rock act AC/DC. The album was released through Albert/Atlantic Records in November 1981.
...following up two multi-platinum selling albums like "Highway to Hell (1979)" and "Back in Black (1980)", must have been a daunting task, even for a band of AC/DC´s caliber, and there were in fact a few bumps on the road ahead, but they had nothing to do with the commercial success of the album, which as the first AC/DC album to enter No. 1 on the US Billboard Chart. The problems were linked to the recording of the album. The band and producer John "Mutt" Lange found it difficult to find their sound at the abondoned factory in France they had installed themselves in, and the initial sessions had to be abandoned. The band took some time off to play the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington park in August 1981 and returned revitalized to a new rehearsal/studio location on the outskirts of Paris. And this time things clicked.
While "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" doesn´t hold as many "classic" AC/DC tracks as it´s famous predecessor, there are more than a couple of really great tracks featured on the album. The title track is the most famous (a live standard from that day on), but "Let's Get It Up" is usually also considered among the classics. I´d like to mention "C.O.D." as one of my personal favorites.
The music style is the usual blusy hard/heavy rock with lead vocalist Brian Johnson´s irresitable rusty voice in front. So everything is as it´s supposed to be. Never come to an AC/DC album expecting a musical revelation in terms of development, but of course there are little tweaks here and there that makes all albums by the band stand out from each other. Yes they are small, but they are there.
...honestly "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" doesn´t quite live up the the extremely high standard of it´s two predecessors, but it´s still a great album by AC/DC and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.