Airbourne – Black Dog Barking

How you feel about Airbourne, and a new Airbourne album, is really dependant on your point of view regarding the merits of music’s necessity to expand and evolve. If you think that artists should explore new avenue’s and reinvent themselves on each new release then this is not for you. If, however, you know what you like and you like what you know, then this could be for you. It is simultaneously a short sighted, relic and a celebration of the true spirit of good, old fashioned rock and roll like they used to make.

If you are looking for a side to be picked here then we’re edging very much toward the latter, and this is due in no small part to just how bastard brilliant Airbourne can make music sound. You’ve heard these songs before, no doubt, but you can’t help but fall in love with them all over again when they are such an invigorating rush of adrenaline as a tune like Live It Up. Airbourne exist in a universe where rock and roll clichés that are sniggered at apparently cooler bands are things to be cherished rather than disregarded.

Joel O’Keeffe still sings about rocking as if his life depended on it, his tales of hard drinking, all night partying and easy Women are just about the most fun you can have in music at the moment. His band toss out uncomplicated hard rock that commands you to bang your head from start to finish. The production is fantastic too, the guitars sound enormous and the drums rattle your skull. It’s clearly an attempt to capture the timeless Mutt Lang bombast of those classic AC/DC albums, and they come pretty darn close. Closer than Acca Dacca have come themselves for decades.

And that is the crux of the matter, If you love hard rock you’ll soon be needing some new heroes. We don’t like to think about it, but those impeachable bands that shaped the rock landscape in the 70’s won’t be around for ever. Someone has to carry the torch, Airbourne have grabbed it and are lighting a cigar and a stick of dynamite with it. Forget reinvention, this black dog is off the leash and his bark is exhilarating.