Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Dlx)

AC/DC's 1981 album digitally remastered and reissued in a special digipak plus a 16 page full color booklet containing all original album art, many unpublished photos, classic memorabilia and new 2003 liner notes. Epic.

While Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap sounds like every other AC/DC album, it is distinguished by a lyrical puerility spectacular even by Bon Scott's standards. Two tracks--"Love at First Feel" and "Squealer"--are ruminations on the morality of sex with schoolgirls. "Big Balls," ostensibly a narrative from the perspective of an aristocrat socialite, is actually a somewhat labored excuse for the band to chant "We've got big balls." This juvenile posturing was, to a large degree, AC/DC winding up their burgeoning foreign audience by playing to stereotypical expectations of Australians. On Dirty Deeds, however, AC/DC try too hard. Only on "Ain't No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)" is Scott's laconic wit deployed to real effect: the sheer glee in the line "Get your fuckin' jumbo jet off my airport!" is almost worth the album's purchase price. --Andrew Mueller