AC/DC is on track to land its fourth U.K. No. 1 album this week with its latest studio effort, Power Up, Planet Rock reports.
Through the weekend, Power Up had sold 47,000 copies in the U.K. and was set to top the 55,000 sales Kylie Minogue achieved last week with Disco, making it 2020’s fastest-selling album so far.
In the U.S., Power Up, is expected to shift between 105,000 and 115,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release. Of that sum, between 100,000 and 110,000 are projected to be in traditional album sales.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Angus Young, Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams discussed how Power Up came together.
“This record is pretty much a dedication to Malcolm [Young, late AC/DC rhythm guitarist, my brother,” Angus says. “It’s a tribute for him like Back in Black was a tribute to Bon Scott.”
“Even when I sit at home and pick up my guitar and start playing, the first thing that enters my head is, ‘I think Mal will like this riff I’m playing’. That’s how I judge lot of stuff.”
Brian added: “Malcolm was always there. As Angus would say, the band was his idea. Everything in it ran through him. He was always there in your minds or just your thoughts. I still see him in my own way. I still think about him. And then in the studio when we’re doing it, you have to be careful when you look around because he seems to be there.”
Williams says: “AC/DC without Mal isn’t AC/DC. He’s just there somehow. He’s always here.”
He also said that once drummer Phil Rudd and Johnson were back in the band, it didn’t take much to convince him to return as well. “It was like the old band back together,” Williams said. “It was not like starting over again, but as close to the band that’s been together for 40-plus years as we can possibly make it. I didn’t want to miss that.”
