Band : Airbourne

Album title : Runnin' Wild

Label : Roadrunner

Distributor : CNR

Release date : April 2008

Release : 2-track CD-single (for radio promotion)

The now second single (a first titled Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast was already reviewed/ posted early in March) for this Oldschool Aussie Hard Rock quartet's debut album Runnin' Wild is being issued for radio use purposes and promotion. Well, since I simply have no time left to listen to radio anymore, I ain't sure if any of the two singles is even getting aired already on our nation's airwaves. Because, what with the Belgian division of Roadrunner holding back on the album's release (would you believe that the promo copy of that album was already submitted to me for review as early a late December of last year?) yet again (official date now postponed until somewhere in June, when the band is supposedly touring in Europe), there's no way of telling whether they possibly put a date-related ban on the singles being aired as well.

Anyways, the single...it contains two versions of the title track of the album, one the regular album version, the other a so-called "Clean" version, although for the life of me I cannot uncover the reason for it being called that way. I can only guess that someone somewhere decided to put the original master through yet another clean-up session [it can't be that any "un-clean" word(s) was (were) changed for (a) more appropriate one(s), because the lyrics remained quite the same], or something of the sorts, because otherwize both tracks sound quite the same (and if there is indeed a difference in sound, I certainly can't find out what it is!). It's a good thing this single is meant mainly for radio promotion, and not for actual release (otherwize it would be quite the scandalous fan milk-out affair).

The song's good, in the best of AC/DC tradition, a band to which Airbourne are not at all ashamed of being compared to...quite on the contrary, they're proud of their remeniscence to one of Australia's most famous export products! Rating? See the album review (posted 22/02/2008). I suppose that, seen as the band already have a third single out, we'll see that one arrive for radio promotion in May, eh? Well, first promoting the album on the radio through its singles, and only then actually bringing the album to the record stores certainly is an alternative way of raising interest in the actual album...always provided the radio stations work along, of course!

Tony.