Part electrical storm mayhem, part medical marvel, AC/DC is back with “Power Up” (Columbia), a raucous, riotous ode to their “Back in Black” heyday. Long gone is the late lead singer Bon Scott, with Bruce Johnson once again helming lead vocals. The sound is pure, the packaging elaborate. (The set is available in a limited deluxe edition with collectible lightbox with illuminating AC/DC Logo, which contains a battery operated 2 watt speaker featuring electric guitar riff and static, USB wire, and CD, with a 20-page booklet.) But what remains the same is the band and rather unapologetically at that. The album tears open with “Realize,” which leads the massive triumph through 12 tracks. “A Shot in the Dark,” the first single, is call and answer at its anthemic rawest; while “Demon Fire” whips up a frenzy: “He loves to drive ’em crazy/with his evil lips/great guns are blazin’/what a deadly trip,” Johnson screeches. AC/DC has certainly been on some kind of highway to hell, having lost Scott in 1980 and guitarist Malcom Young in 2017; while drummer Phil Rudd is back behind the kit, he wasn’t for a while, having been placed on house arrest for threatening to kill a man, very rock and rogue. Johnson lost his hearing for a while and as for Angus Young, his schoolboy outfit still fits nicely. “Power Up” is their 16th album and much of the record’s co-writes date back to 2008’s “Black Ice,” but who’s counting? The tunes are on-par with their playing virtuoso and veteran producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam) fills the songs with overproduction to an unempowering decibel point. And while their devil horns may have a few cobwebs, for those who like to rock, AC/DC salutes you.

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No, their 1989 tour was not sponsored by Geritol. But the Rolling Stones were still caught between “rock” and a hard place on “Steel Wheels: Atlantic City, New Jersey” (Eagle Rock Entertainment), a live two-CD, one DVD collection that covers most of their legendary classics. Having not hit the road for most of the ’80s, the Steel Wheels tour was a remarkable return for the Stones, not least as it was the longest tour that they had by that point undertaken. It was also their last with Bill Wyman. “Steel Wheels” was recorded towards the end of the band’s 60-date run through the stadiums of North America, in the second half of 1989. The gate-busting tickets sales were out of this world (I went), but the stage and lighting design for the tour set the pace for superstar tours as we know them today. There are special appearances by Axl Rose, Izzy Stadlin, Eric Clapton and John Lee Hooker. From the first chords of the opener, “Start Me Up,” the band is clearly firing on all cylinders and wastes no time whipping the crowd into a wicked frenzy. Though one magazine belted out, “Lock Up Your Grandmothers” – a play on the old ’60s headline, “Lock Up Your Daughters!” – “Steel Wheels” finds the Stones in near mint condition. The setlist includes five tunes from their new album at the time, “Sad, Sad, Sad” and “Mixed Emotions” among them, plus two chestnuts: “2,000 Light Years From Home,” off 1967’s “Their Satanic Majesty’s Request,” and from “Beggar’s Banquet,” “Salt of the Earth.” It’s easy to forget now, after three decades of watching and listening to the Stones conquer arenas around the globe, there was a time when the band had whispers of doubt around them. “Steel Wheels” answers the nay-sayers, rewards the faithful and proves they keep rolling along. As Keith Richards remarked about the band’s abilities, “It never occurred to me that they might not be able to cut it. Absolutely not.”

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The Tom Petty deluxe reissue of “Wildflowers & All The Rest” (Warner) is a pleasant surprise and at times, an unearthed treasure – all 54 tracks worth. Originally, Petty had mapped out a sprawling 25-song double album, but the suits at the record label nixed the ideas, citing a huge collection might send sales free-falling. And they were probably right. This 4-disc set is a testimony to the talent and passion that Petty possessed. The first disc is the remastered album, rich with 15 songs like “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” “You Wreck Me,” and the delicate title track. Disc 2 features the ten tracks that didn’t make the original record, including “Leave Virginia Alone” and “Hope You Never,” which feel as inventive, soulful and natural as the original album. This was Petty’s last hurrah, his last great studio effort. Part mid-life crisis, part hippie stomp, “Wildflowers” feels like it takes place “between a memory and a dream,” as Petty put it himself. Produced by rock legend producer Rick Rubin (who did astonishing work with Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings,” and provides an introduction for the extensive accompanying booklet ) and featuring liner notes by Rubin and Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, this undertaking is no small feat, as each song’s story is told by people who were there and part of the recording process. “It’s Good To Be King,” is said to be one of Petty’s favorites songs. Here, Campbell calls it, “The part about being the king to meet girls, it’s done with a tongue in the cheek,” while for “Cabin Down Below,” Rubin says, “The Heartbreakers in their dance club mode.” There’s also a disc of Petty’s home recordings and “Wildflowers” live. All said, Petty later revealed that with this record, “I broke into something else.” Breaking and entering never sounded so good.

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