I have a good rule for parties. If you follow this rule, you will have good parties. AC/DC will always make your party better. It doesn’t really matter which record. Back In Black has the most crowd pleasers. Highway To Hell is the all-around best. Let There Be Rock is the most interesting. (though really, anything from the Bon Scott-era will do). Put on some AC/DC and your party is *improved*.

With this rule, however, comes the expectation that an AC/DC record will sound like an AC/DC record. Records that stray too far from the tried and true formula, such as Stiff Upper Lip (2000) need not apply.

There’s been a fair bit of AC/DC in the news lately. Between Malcom Young’s health problems and Phil Rudd’s *ahem* legal problems, one could speculate that their latest could be their last album. Or one of them, if they do intend to keep rocking until the bitter end. Thus it is with great pleasure that I can happily recommend Rock Or Bust for your party. With ten pounding mid-tempo jams (and one slightly above mid-tempo jam “Baptism By Fire” to shake things up) you can trust that this record will satisfy your expectations.

It’s sort of a damned if you don’t, damned if you do situation for the band. It’s easy to criticize them for essentially releasing the same album over and over. But 2008’s safe-sounding Black Ice outsold Stiff Upper Lip eight million records to two. So I can’t blame them for sticking to their guns on Rock Or Bust. Besides, would you really have it any other way?