One bright spot in an otherwise way too full of pandemic 2020 has been the new AC/DC album.

Here are my predictions of what the songs will be about based on AC/DC’s previous albums; I predict 5 songs about sex, 2 about love, 2 about rocking (the importance of), 1 about crime, 1 about the human condition and 1 about the rejection of social norms.

As with all my previous categorisations, songs can be in two categories if they don’t fit neatly in one or are ambiguous. I have an Excel file to record my decisions.

The Songs

Realize – this is about personal power/ego, supporting lyric “I’ve got the power to hypnotize.”

Rejection – another song about personal power/ego, there’s acting the big I am all over this song, supporting lyric “Better keep me on your side, or I’ll find you in the night.”

Shot In The Dark – this is about sex, supporting lyric is all of them, but especially “a long night pumping.” When I first begun listening to AC/DC I may have been naïve enough to think this was about blowing up balloons but now I know better.

Through The Mists Of Time – this is about nostalgia/sex, we have a new category here with nostalgia. Some of AC/DC’s first dalliances are likely to have had knee replacements now. A sobering thought. We’d all love to go back to the Saturday nights of our late teens and early twenties, when the world was shiny and new for us and our groins throbbed to the beat of an un-ignorable drum. Supporting lyric “Through the mists of time, And the painted faces, Looking so divine.”

Kick You When You’re Down – this is about sex, supporting lyric “Why do you kick me outta bed?” It reminds me of “Shot Down In Flames” a bit.

Witch’s Spell – another one about sex, this song is from a long line of rock songs about the dark arts of women and their ability to be all enchanting and that. Supporting lyric “Got a tale to tell, Caught in a witch’s spell. Crystal balls and an almanac.” It’s a little known fact that AC/DC once received a yearlong forecast of what would be their sexual fortunes from a highly specialised mystic. It was called the almanackers and all copies have sadly been lost.  

Demon Fire – this song seems to be about a sort of sexy criminal, so I’m going to categorise it as sex and crime. Supporting crime lyric “Give me no quarrel, lives of crime”, supporting sex lyric “Demon fire is all you desire.”

Wild Reputation –this is about crime, supporting lyrics “On a hot summer day, Dollar bills come your way, Somebody robbed the bank.”

No Man’s Land – this is about war, supporting lyric “Fight and live another day.”

Systems Down – usually when you hear going down in a hard rock song you conclude swiftly what it’s about, and I see no need to go on a longer mental journey, this is a sex song, supporting lyric “This furnace is about to blast.”

Money Shot – could this be about a COVID-19 vaccine and the significant scientific challenges to be addressed? Nah, it’s about sex again. Phew! What we want from AC/DC is escapism, we’ll read The Lancet, BMJ or New Scientist if we want to know about vaccines.

Supporting lyric “Lady, just try the money shot (Best taken when hot).”

Code Red – I can’t tell if this is about sex or war so I’m categorizing it as both. Supporting lyric “Weapons ready.” I think the lyric “Sleeping on a waterfall” might be nonsense but necessary because it rhymes.

In conclusion we have 6.5 songs about sex, 2 about personal power/ego, 1.5 about war, 1.5 about crime and 0.5 about nostalgia.

My initial predictions were about half right. I underestimated the amount of sex AC/DC would spaff out at us in this musical offering.

One of the best things about this AC/DC album is that it’s an AC/DC album. There’s no new direction, no attempt to do something different, because when you got it so right so long ago you don’t have to change.

Here is the updated pie chart of AC/DC studio albums by song topic;

AC/DC have enlivened our rather lacklustre 2020 for which I thank them. Will we get to see AC/DC live in 2021 or 2022? I really hope so. Many of their classic album covers are now available as jigsaws but as an experience it won’t beat live music. Maybe their next album will feature a song about doing one of their jigsaws?