Cheap Highway to Hell Review
My opinion on AC/DC is that, in the Bon Scott days, they gradually became more and more consistent with each new release. Despite that, I still believe Powerage is their best overall album. This one comes close, though.
The title song has been played a thousand times on a thousand different classic rock stations around the country, and probably around the world. Not a favorite song of mine to be honest (perhaps due to overexposure, or perhaps I just don’t think it’s that great) and probably the weakest big hit they ever wrote, but who cares? Because starting with the next song, this album just turns incredible.
“Girls Got Rhythm” has always been one of my favorite songs. An immediately enjoyable guitar riff, STRONG vocal melody, and one of the most spectacular songs in the bands career. Clearly AC/DC was not influenced by the disco movement. I bet they even laughed at the thought of writing a disco song and wrote off the whole movement.
“Walk All Over You” has one of the most passionate verse melodies in Bon Scott’s short career. Seriously, listen to how much emotion he puts into this song when he’s singing it. He nailed a perfect performance. Moments of his singing almost make me cry, but something tells me getting soft and tearing up is definitely *not* what the band was going for, haha. Oh well, I love it all the time.
“Touch Too Much” is incredibly melodic. This sounds like the kind of song that should have been a major hit all across the world with a verse melody and chorus that’s *amazingly* memorable. Why wasn’t it? I have no idea. Should have been bigger than the title song even.
“Beating Around the Bush” features an extremely raw rock and roll style to the way the verse melody is delivered, and I love it. Great guitar solo too.
By the way, while it’s one my mind- what’s most amazing about this album is that, in my opinion at least, the guitar riffs themselves aren’t the greatest. I can’t think of a single guitar riff that really jumps out to me the same way, to name one example, the one in “Down Payment Blues” does. Powerage and High Voltage smear this album in terms of guitar riffs alone, but despite that, the songwriting feels significantly stronger this time around, and Bon Scott’s vocals are really on the money as well.
This album *does* show a turning point in the bands career however. They were obviously going in a more commercial direction regardless what would have happened with Bon Scott. That doesn’t take anything away from the music however (at least not on this album).
“Night Crawler” never used to be one of my favorites, but now that I’m older, wiser and smarter, I can appreciate those slow, creepy vocals, along with the underrated guitar solos.
Overall, yes. This is one of the best hard rock albums of 1979. A must own.
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