***1/2 AC/DC

STIFF UPPER LIP

(Elektra)

In a genre so dedicated to excess that Spinal Tap had an amp that went up to 11, this rugged Aussie outfit have built a career on the notion that less is more. That's why questions about whether AC/DC ought to be filed under heavy metal or hard-rock arise from time to time: the material on AC/DC's best albums -- Highway to Hell, Back in Black -- is constructed from basic blues guitar riffs, verse/chorus/verse/guitar solo song structures, lyrics about sex, drink, and rock and roll, and a money-back guarantee that when a song's called "Hell's Bells" you'll hear the words "hell's bells" repeated at least a dozen times. But it's what AC/DC leave out that makes the biggest difference: no fancy drum fills or bass lines that stray too far from the root notes; no gentle piano ballads (in fact, no piano at all); no subtly layered guitar arrangements -- just brothers Malcolm and Angus Young double-teaming those basic blues riffs until it's Angus's turn to solo (usually after the second chorus).

Stiff Upper Lip, the band's first proper full-length in five years and the 17th AC/DC album overall, features three-fifths of the Highway to Hell/Back in Black line-up: drummer Phil Rudd, who's back in the fold after a long sabbatical, and the indispensable Brothers Young. And with Robert John "Mutt" Lange off conquering the world with wife Shania Twain, the disc also marks the return of another Young gun, producer and older brother George Young, who was at the helm for the Bon Scott-era early albums High Voltage, Let There Be Rock, and Powerage. The result, though drier and not quite as polished as a Lange production (think "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"), delivers the goods with a dozen lean, mean, classic-sounding AC/DC nuggets, proving that despite the occasional imitator, AC/DC still do AC/DC better than anyone else.

-- Matt Ashare