<i> Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic). : </i>

*** AC/DC “The Razor’s Edge” Atco

This Australian band has been accused of making the same album over and over since it began in the mid-’70s, thumping assemblages of pentatonic power chords and leering innuendo--a style so distinctive that you can always recognize an AC/DC tune on the radio.

It’s rock ‘n’ roll stripped to its absolute basics of noise, beat and schoolboy aggression--any high school dude with a guitar can reproduce any AC/DC riff. The group’s last few albums have sold well, but nowhere near the umpteen-million copies they routinely sold between 1979 and 1982. AC/DC’s rotation on hard-rock stations is probably nearly as high as Led Zep’s, but what’s played is mostly 10 years old.

This time out, the band hired hot Aerosmith/Bon Jovi producer Bruce Fairburn, and the album still rocks like AC/DC, but a rather slick version thereof.

AC/DC’s trademark gritty guitars are softened up; studio swooshing fills the famous empty space between power chords; vocalist Brian Johnson actually tries to sing instead of yelp like a wolverine. The tinge of mainstream rock may make longtime fans scream, but “Razor’s Edge” is probably AC/DC’s best album since 1985’s “Fly on the Wall.”