The Razors Edge (AC/DC album)

The band had recorded Blow Up Your Video (1988) with their original producers, Harry Vanda and George Young.[4][5] It was a commercial success – the album reached number 2 in the UK,[6] and Australia.[7] The Blow Up Your Video World Tour began in February 1988 in Perth, Australia. following live appearances across Europe, Malcolm Young announced that he was taking time off touring, principally to begin recovery from his alcoholism.[8] Another member of the Young family, their nephew, Stevie Young, temporarily took Malcolm's place on rhythm guitar.[8][9] In 1989, drummer Simon Wright left the group to work on British heavy metal band Dio's fifth studio album Lock Up the Wolves (1990); he was replaced by session veteran Chris Slade.[9] Brian Johnson was unavailable for several months while finalising his divorce, so the Young brothers wrote all the songs for the next album, a practice they continued for all subsequent releases through Power Up in 2020.[10]

The Razors Edge was recorded at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, Canada, and was mixed and engineered by Mike Fraser and produced by Bruce Fairbairn, who had previously worked with Aerosmith and Bon Jovi.[1] According to the book AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, George Young was involved early on but had to bow out because of personal issues.[11] The instantly recognizable opening riff to "Thunderstruck" features Young alternating between fretted notes and playing the open string. In a 1993 interview with Guitar World's Alan Di Perna, the guitarist recalls, "I was just fiddling with my left hand when I came up with that riff; I played it more by accident than anything. I thought, 'not bad,' and put it on a tape. That's how me and Malcolm generally work. We put our ideas down on tape and play them for one another." He expanded in greater detail in the liner notes of the 2003 re-release of The Razors Edge:

It started off from a little trick I had on guitar. I played it to Mal and he said "Oh, I've got a good rhythm idea that will sit well in the back." We built the song up from that. We fiddled about with it for a few months before everything fell into place. Lyrically, it was really just a case of finding a good title...We came up with this thunder thing and it seemed to have a good ring to it. AC/DC = Power. That's the basic idea.[12]

"Moneytalks" is also one of AC/DC's biggest hits, breaking the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100,[13] the UK Singles Charts,[6] and the Australian ARIA Singles Chart.[14] It is still the band's highest-charting single in the United States, at number 23 (no other AC/DC single has ever cracked the top 30). During their subsequent world tour, thousands of "Angus Bucks" were dropped on the audience during the song. A music video of the song, directed by David Mallet, was also released, featuring a live performance during the tour. Author Murray Engleheart states in his band memoir AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll: "On songs like 'Mistress for Christmas' and 'Moneytalks', Malcolm and Angus showed their working-class roots, despite multi-millionaire selling albums, by taking aim at the high flyers in the business world."[11] In a February 1991 interview with Guitar World Angus Young stated, "I think the funniest song on this album is 'Mistress For Christmas.' That song's about Donald Trump. He was big news at the time, so we thought we'd have a bit of fun and humor with it."[15] In the same interview, he declared that his best guitar solo on the LP was on the song "The Razors Edge," which also features a rare foray into finger picking.[15] Although AC/DC had always remained apolitical when it came to their music, the title track was a commentary of sorts, with Young explaining to MuchMusic in 1992:

Malcolm Young in 1990

"The Razors Edge" comes from an old saying farmers used to use in Britain where you'd have a fine sunny day, you know, a very good day with a hot sun, and then all of a sudden right in the distance you could see these black clouds coming over the horizon, an ominous thing...I thought it was a great title. The world was at peace again and everyone thought, "Ah, the Berlin Wall's come down and it's all gonna be fun and games, a party every night," and you can see now that it's not that way. It's just our way of saying the world's not perfect and never will be.

With the release of The Razors Edge, AC/DC undertook a world tour, possibly the most publicized tour they had ever done. The success of the tour was fueled by the crowd-pleasing songs, such as "Thunderstruck", "Moneytalks", "Fire Your Guns", "The Razor's Edge", and "Are You Ready", which were also included on the AC/DC Live: Collector's Edition album as live versions. Several shows on the Razors Edge Tour were recorded for the 1992 live album titled AC/DC Live. The album was produced by Fairbairn, and is considered one of the best live albums of the 1990s.[16]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[17]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	9/10[18]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[19]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[20]
Rolling Stone	[21]
Select	[22]

The Razors Edge peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 77 consecutive weeks.[23] It also reached number 4 on OCC's UK Albums Chart.[6] The album helped return AC/DC to its former glory. The album has in 2006 reached 5× Platinum in US according to the RIAA.[24] The album has sold approximately 18.8 million copies worldwide, making it the third highest selling AC/DC album (after Powerage, Let There Be Rock, For Those About to Rock We Salute You, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and High Voltage).[25]

The album received generally mixed to positive reviews. AllMusic complimented both the vocal performance by Brian Johnson and the guitar playing of Angus Young, and said that the album was "arguably [the band's] strongest album in over half a decade."[17] Entertainment Weekly gave the album a very favourable review, saying that "this is one album that really delivers."[20] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff defined the album "tight, highly strung and menacing... entirely worthy of its status as the grand comeback of legendary rock 'n' roll runts".[18] Rolling Stone, on the other hand, gave the album two out of five stars, criticizing its similarity to past AC/DC works, and said that "with The Razors Edge, AC/DC sets a new record for the longest career without a single new idea."[21] In a 2008 Rolling Stone cover story David Fricke wrote: "After a few albums that sounded like old ideas warmed over once too often, this is a near-comeback, busting out with Angus' wasp-army trills in the first song."

AC/DC

• Brian Johnson – lead vocals
• Angus Young – lead guitar
• Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Cliff Williams – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Chris Slade – drums, percussion

Production

• Bruce Fairbairn – producer
• Mike Fraser – engineer, mixing
• Brian Dobbs – assistant engineers
• Sean Leonard – assistant engineers
• Ian Taylor – additional recordings
• Ken Lomas – additional recordings
• George Marino – mastering
• Stewart Young – management

• Lyrics