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Def Leppard - Def Leppard

Published November 03 2015


*
=Staff's pick

Let's Go*
Dangerous*
Man Enough
We Belong
Invincible
Sea Of Love
Energized
All Time High*
Battle Of My Own
Broke 'N' Brokenhearted
Forever Young
Last Dance
Wings Of An Angel*
Blind Faith

Genre Rock
Joe Elliott
Vocals
Tracks 14
Joe Elliott
Acoustic Guitar
Running time 55 Min.
Phil Collen
Guitar
Label earMUSIC
Vivian Campbell
Guitar
Release October 30, 2015
Rick Savage
Bass
Country England
Rick Allen
Drums
Producer Def Leppard w/Ronan McHugh
Keyboard
Similar artists ---

Def Leppard's 11th album takes off with 2 songs in the band's late 80's/early 90's style and my expectations suddenly get set a lot higher and I instantly have dreams of that this type of guitar playing and that these kind of melodies will continue in this way all throughout the disc. A few songs later, my hopes for some kind of full rebirth is denied big-time and I'm trying to figure out why this outfit doesn't write, more or less, an entire record packed with older type of songs, since they obviously still have the skills to do it and it's, at the end of the day, where their efforts come out in best possible way.

Already with the 3rd track, Man Enough, even if that one in particular contains groovy bass lines, they end up in some kind of pop-rock oriented marshland and the record takes a big leap downhill. The rest of the album comprises, which I believe is important to point out, a pair of really good tracks, which, probably not by chance, happens to be the ones with a bigger amount of hard rock perspectives, but also quite many songs that are just too mellow to get this thing really going. When they try to bring forth some inventive and experimental stuff, they can't convert either and some of the songs are utterly bad, although this last part fortunately is just covering a small percentage of the record.

I think that this is just another album of the British rock giants that they barely will play anything live off after their next coming touring cycle. I really feel that it's such a drag that they don't seem to want to come out with music that holds a high validity. To see them go back to the times of Pyromania and earlier is definitely not something I would expect, but apparently they are still able to make awesome songs, since some sections of the disc so clearly reflect a period where the band's music, in comparison to this present day, was in fact a far greater experience to listen to.

This record is undoubtedly not a great example of something that has an even quality. It has an explicable variety of songs, all the way from the deepest gutters up to almost hitting the top of their past achievements. I don't see this self titled album as a lame effort overall, but as with so many other records by veteran bands, there's often a strong desire within me, and within many other fans as well I guess, that they will manage to come out with material which at least comes pretty close to what they once were able to produce, instead of, like now, just release a pretty okay record in the end.

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

7

4

6

6

5

 
Summary



5 chalices of 10 - Tobbe


Related links:

www.defleppard.com
www.facebook.com/defleppard