Airbourne

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but Airbourne have a new album out so I thought I'd dive back in and take a look at these Aussie rockers. I often describe them as 'AC/DC, but now', and that is exactly what they are. There ain't no lofty artistic goals here, this is straight-up, in-your-face power chords for 3 minutes at a time. 

Airbourne, set up by the O'Keeffe brothers, are:

Joel O'Keeffe - Vocals and lead guitar

David Roads - Rhythm guitar (2003-2017)

Harri Harrison - Rythmn guitar (2017-present)

Justin Street - Bass

Ryan O'Keeffe - Drums

Runnin' Wild (2007)

Like many other bands, my getting into Airbourne started with Guitar Hero. On 'On Tour', Airbourne had a song called Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast. It wasn't particularly hard or fun to play, but it was such a solid hard rock song that I went out and bought this album. And I'm very glad I did. 

There's a huge amount of youthful energy to this album. Barely out of their 20s, Airbourne brought a whole new life to the AC/DC template. Straight out of the gates, Stand Up For Rock 'N' Roll is a statement of intent for the band - 'drink your beer, drink your wine, let's have a good time; we're ready, so get ready, we're gonna rock, rock tonight!'. They're not here to make you think, to break the mould, to innovate. They're here to rock. 

The title track follows, the video of which guest stars one of their heroes - Lemmy. Runnin' Wild keeps up the breakneck pace, and is a perfect driving song. Third we have Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast - the whole reason I bought the album - and though the tempo drops a tad, the intensity remains at peak levels. 

Much like AC/DC, Airbourne suffer a bit due to the general similarity of sound throughout their albums, so that it is more difficult for songs to stand out from the pack. Having said that, Runnin' Wild suffers from this the least of all of the Airbourne albums. Diamond In The Rough, Blackjack, Girls In Black, Cheap Wine & Cheaper Women are all great tracks that could have stood alone as singles. If I want to be a bit critical, Fat City and What's Eatin' You are the most 'filler-ey' songs here, but they still deserve the places here. 

This is the best Airbourne album in my opinion. Maybe it's because it's the first, maybe it's the youth. But I also think the songwriting is particularly strong here. Sure, it's all verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus, but the riffs are heavy and memorable, and for the most part the lyrics are pretty good in a 'classic rock'n'roll lyrics' kind of way. 

Before moving on, it's worth mentioning that Runnin' Wild has several versions with bonus tracks. If you collected them all, you would have 4 bonus tracks, and 3 songs which were re-recorded versions of their very limited release 2004 EP. Some of these are decent songs, though I think their songwriting improved a fair bit between 2004 and 2007...

No Guts, No Glory (2010)

You can get a good feel for this album from the cover art. A screaming, topless Joel thrusting his guitar high - yep, that's what it sounds like. But also, far too much going on around him - there are visual representations for about 7 songs in that background. 

This is an overstuffed album. The standard edition runs at a reasonable 13 songs, while the special edition adds 5 extra songs for a total of 18. It's impossible for a band like Airbourne to fill an 18-song album without resorting to filler in places. And, honestly, I think it might have been better to swap in some of those bonus tracks for standard tracks (e.g. My Dyanamite Will Blow You Sky High for White Line Fever, and Kickin' It Old School for Get Busy Livin') and leaving the album as is. 

The energy which permeated throughout the entire first album is a little more restrained here - being allowed out only on some tracks. Born To Kill, Raise The Flag, It Ain't Over Till It's Over are all played with speed and ferocity. But elsewhere the tempo is a lower, and the playing a bit more relaxed. Admittedly, this is because some of the songwriting is a tad more considered and thoughtful than perviously - Bottom Of The Well stands out well above the rest in that regard. 

In terms of subject matter, the first album was all drinking, partying, women, and rock'n'roll. This second album is pretty much the same (see Blonde, Bad And Beautiful), but has a bit more of a working-class, industrial edge. No Way But The Hard Way, Steel Town, Get Busy Livin', and Kickin' It Old School all cover topics like factory-working, striving for a better life, and clocking off your shift and kicking it back with the guys. It's not particuarly nuanced social commentary, but I think it reveals both a bit of the background of the bandmembers, and of the audience they (think they) tend to attract. This is hard-working rock for hard-working people. 

Black Dog Barking (2013)

Ripping themselves off entirely, the opening track is too easily comparable to Runnin Wild's Stand Up For Rock And Roll. A long introduction, building and building, before bursting into a song about how hard this album is going to rock. This isn't a complaint, really, but I think it's worth pointing out that Airbourne seem to have returned more to the Runnin' Wild template.

And I think that first-album feel continues throughout the album. The youthful intensity was only let out for certain songs on No Guts, but here it's back to being all over the album. In fact, the tempo only really slows up on tracks 3, 4 and 9 - No One Fits Me [Better Than You], Back In The Game, and Cradle To The Grave. Now, Airbourne had flirted with some wink-nudge innuendo on No Guts with Armed And Dangerous, but No One Fits Me is the first hint that they may be willing to be a little less subtle...

Best song on the album - Live It Up, by an absolute mile. The build up takes absolutely ages, but when the song kicks in it really kicks in. A classic chorus that fans can sing along to at gigs, and a general YOLO message. It also has, what I think, is a pretty fun line of wordplay in 'The devil may care, but I don't give a damn'. Great song. 

It just feels like there's a lot less filler on this album. The standard edition's 10 tracks are all-out rock with no letup. The only track I'm not a huge fan of is Hungry, but even then I'm a fan of the twangy intro and the main riff. 

Unlike No Guts, the 3 bonus tracks on Black Dog Barking are a nice extra rather than being better than some of the standard tracks. Jack Attack could have comfortably fit on the album proper, pushing it to an 11-track length. But the other two are kind of forgettable and were rightly left as bonuses. 

The special edition also has an 8-track live album, recorded at Wacken 2011. This has some nice versions of Blackjack and Girls In Black from Runnin' Wild, and it does a good job of sounding fast and heavy - like Airbourne actually are live. But it has two main problems with the vocals: they're mixed too low, and also it's clear that Joel can't quite hit the high notes on a consistent basis. I found this when I saw them myself live - Joel often sings an entire octave lower. 

Breakin' Outta Hell (2016)

Noting above that Joel's voice seemed to be unable to hit the high notes live that he lays down on the albums, Breakin' Outta Hell is very noticably lacking in high-notes. Airbourne were never a screamy band, but most songs had that 'hold the final syllabus in the chorus as the song goes into the guitar solo' thing that rock bands often do, and in those Joel would often reach higher. There were also songs like Blonde, Bad and Beautiful where Joel gets high-ish throughout the song. 

In Breakin' Outta Hell, I just couldn't help but notice that the songs were lower, and there were fewer high holds. Which is a real shame, and it made me hope that Joel hadn't wrecked his voice in only 10 years...

But anyway, what about this album? Well, it's a bit mixed. The title track opens, and is probably the best song. It's fast, heavy, and mixes the messages of Bottom Of The Well and Live It Up. Actually, it might better be described as what might have happened if AC/DC had been asked to rewrite Bat Out Of Hell. 

Like No Guts, it feels like the energy is contained to only a few of the songs rather than throughout. The title track, Thin The Blood, and When I Drink I Go Crazy all have that up-tempo, headbanging feel to them. But elsewhere, we're a bit slower and stomping. I think I prefer my Airbourne fast and loud. 

It's All For Rock 'N' Roll is worth a shoutout as being a tribute to Lemmy. It's a nice, steady tribute with some poignant lyrics - but I can't help but wonder if Lemmy would have preferred something a bit more amphetamine-fueled...

And then we get three Steel Panther-alikes. Down On You, Never Been Rocked Like This and Do Me Like You Do Yourself are all just a bit misplaced on an Airbourne album. The first and third of those in particular feel weird. They're not as ridiculous as Steel Panther songs, but they're still a bit too 'single-entendre'. On the first listen I was thinking 'really?'. To be honest, I'd rather they leave that kind of material to Steel Panther and concentrate on other topics. Or, at least, only having one song of this kind per album. 

The special edition of this album only has one bonus track - Bombshell. I have no idea why this wasn't added to the album proper - it's good enough to be on it and it feels a bit silly to just have a single bonus track given Airbourne's historical penchent for bonus tracks. 

Boneshaker (2019)

Blink your ears and you'll miss this album. 10 songs and barely coming in at 30 minutes. But don't worry, Airbourne haven't become a punk band. They just decided that some songs only need to be 2 minutes long when they're played fast and hard. 

I'm quite surprised on writing this blog that I've found a pattern in Airbourne's album output. They seem to go fast-slow-fast-slow-fast. And after the surprising plod along that was Breakin Outta Hell, Boneshaker feels like it's just downed 3 pints and run straight into a mosh pit. 

Burnout The Nitro, Blood In The Water, Switchblade Angel, and Rock'N'Roll For Life (see the acronym under the skull on the album cover...) are all about as fast as Airbourne can go. It's not speed metal or anything like that, but it's definitely Motörhead-esque. 

The slower (as in mid-paced) songs also just feel a lot more purposeful than anything on Breakin Outta Hell. The prior album felt like they were going through the motions, whereas here it feels like they've been reminded exactly why they like playing those power chords. We also get some bluesyness on Sex To Go, which is a nice change. 

But we've got to talk about some of these songs. The title track, Sex To Go , Backseat Boogie, She Gives Me Hell, and Switchblade Angel are all on one topic. Sex To Go (a series of puns about fast-food) and Backseat Boogie (which unironically uses the phrase 'hoochie coochie') are still a bit Steel Pangher-ey. The other 3 songs mentioned can just about get away with it with some not-so-subtle metaphors. But the other two are a bit too obvious for me, and make me cringe - a feeling I'm sure they weren't hoping you to have on listening to their hard rock album.

Overall, though, I think this is a big improvement over Breaking Outta Hell. And, I haven't even mentioned yet that it sounds like Joel's voice is fine. There's plenty of chorus screaming going on, phew. 

For the first time ever, the bonus edition of Boneshaker doesn't have a single original bonus track! All we get are live versions of Heartbreaker (solid version), and Raise The Flag (slightly better than the live version on Black Dog Barking, but not so much better than you need to get it). 
This is a particular shame because the album is so short. Reviewers used to joke that you had to read Douglas Adams novels twice to get your money's worth because they were so short. The same applies here - lucky, then, that it's pretty good. 

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As they're still young, Airbourne have many albums left in them, I'm sure. So I'll probably update this every 2/3 years or so.