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It's a set designed for the kind of diehard who would purchase a box set housed in a working amplifier, but its pleasures aren't limited to the dedicated, particularly when it comes to early AC/DC.
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UncutIf you find it impressive how AC/DC have spun three chords into a 30-year career, then you'll enjoy what they can do with a boxset: Backtracks comes with three CDs, two DVDs, all packaged inside a recession-friendly amplifier. [Jan 2010, p. 103]
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Overall, Backtracks is not quite the treasure trove that fans might have been craving all these years, and it might have been a better idea to offer complete remastered CDs of AC/DC’s first four Australian albums instead of the single-CD mishmash, or even dig a little deeper into the live/studio vaults. That said, in spite of some bumps along the way, it’s still a very fun seven or eight hour trip.
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Q MagazineThe live material shows the band in their element, even if the limitations of Johnson's voice are exposed, flawless performances of "Hells Bells" and "Live Wire" explaining why they're still one of the most thrilling live acts. [Jan 2010, p.131]
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It would be hard to argue that the set is worth its price (for true fans, the deluxe version comes in a working amp!), but even the most cynical could find a lot of value in downloading the first seven songs of Disc One from the digital music distributor of their choice.
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Nor will any but the most dedicated fan have any need for the live cuts, given the extraordinary amount of live AC/DC material already available.
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Where the smaller Backtracks offers a single live rarities compilation, the amplified heat fleshes it to two.
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CD2’s smoking live versions are where AC/DC defend their reputation as a well-oiled machine, as oiled up as the jugtastic fembots that permeate the music’s hyper-hetero fantasia. And the band’s testicle-laden metaphorical fodder is brought to life on the DVD’s music videos.
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It's good, dirty fun.